


New days

by Esti7310



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne & Rowling
Genre: M/M, but i tried to make it make more sense, i was just really bitter about cursed child, mostly canon compliant, summer after cursed child, the gang's all here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-10
Updated: 2016-11-06
Packaged: 2018-08-07 20:17:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 34,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7728382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Esti7310/pseuds/Esti7310
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The ridiculous time travel adventure might be over, but the kids still have summer and fifth year to look forward to – and it's definitely going to be an interesting time. </p><p>(Basically my attempt at dragging these characters and relationships out of the gutter. Continues pretty much where Cursed Child left off.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> And here I go, along with literally everyone else in the fandom, writing about Cursed Child because I refuse to accept how it went.

Albus had always almost enjoyed the train ride home from Hogwarts. He liked the idea of being back in his own house, in his own bed. At the same time, though, it always meant that he was facing two months without Scorpius, two months of no one but his family. 

Albus had found himself leaning on his best friend more than ever in the last month (both figuratively and literally). Eyes had been on both of them as soon as rumours of their adventure had started spreading, and for once, Albus thought he might understand what his father meant about hating the attention. Albus was so used to flying more or less under the radar – he wasn't exactly disliked, but after everyone realized he wasn’t the next Harry Potter, they mostly left him alone. Hogwarts seemed to turn upside-down once people were paying attention to him, though. Suddenly people were talking to him at meals, in class, in the corridors, and it would have been nice, but Albus was pretty sure they were only doing it in hopes of hearing a story, even if they came up to him under the pretense of being friendly. 

Albus had just mentioned this theory to Scorpius as the scarlet train wove through a drizzle, about two hours away from London. 

“Maybe they really do just want to meet you, Albus,” Scorpius suggested. 

“They’ve had four years to do that.”

“Yeah, but now you’re interesting,” said Scorpius. Albus raised an eyebrow. 

“What, I wasn’t before?”

“Okay, well, now you’re the kind of interesting that other people care about. I sort of like it. We’re cool now, Albus.”

Albus laughed. “Scorpius, you’re still a nerd. I’m still a mediocre wizard still trying to figure out which way to hold a wand. We’re not that cool.”

“Maybe this is the gateway to cool… ness. Coolness? Cool-dom?”

“See what I mean, we’re still dorks.”

Scorpius laughed and tossed his friend a chocolate frog. “Yeah, maybe you’re right. I think I like that better anyway.”

 

The platform was, as usual, crowded with swarms of parents and siblings, scanning the train windows for their children. Albus spotted familiar faces out the window of their compartment – his parents, Scorpius’s dad, Teddy and Victoire, his grandmother and grandfather with a small gang of Weasleys. He felt his stomach sink a bit. Albus had known this moment was coming. He would have to get off the train and see a crowd of family and friends, and they would all swarm him and ask him how he was in ways that meant they wanted to know what had happened, but didn’t want to ask him outright. 

“You’ll be fine,” said Scorpius quietly from over his shoulder, knowing exactly what Albus was thinking. “It all happened a month ago, they’ll be over it. And it’s the platform, you know, it’s always hectic. They’ll be focused on herding you all home.”

“I hope so,” said Albus, turning away from the window to gather up candy wrappers and stuff his things into his trunk. He knew that Scorpius was still watching him, probably concerned. 

“Albus?”

“Mm-hm?”

“Do you think- I mean, er… Are you and your dad all right?”

Albus shrugged, not looking at his friend. “I think so. I guess I get him a little more now. I think he’s being easier on me, and I think... I think a lot of what he said was an accident or stress.”

“Good,” said Scorpius, taking his friend’s wrists and pulling him up. “But don't let anyone shove you around. Owl me if you need anything over the summer, all right?”

“Of course,” said Albus. “Same to you.”

Albus looked out the window over his friend’s shoulder. “People are starting to get off.”

Scorpius glanced behind him at the students spilling onto the platform, then turned back to his friend and pulled him into a tight hug. Albus squeezed back, closing his eyes and gripping Scorpius’s shoulders. He never missed much about Hogwarts, but Scorpius… he would miss Scorpius. 

The boys lingered in their compartment as long as they could, and were some of the last students to leave the train. Harry and Ginny waved enthusiastically at Albus as soon as his feet were on the platform. Draco was watching them from the other direction, a small smile twisting on his lips when he spotted his son getting off the train. Albus hesitated before turning back to his family for good. 

“I’ll see you,” he said to Scorpius.

“You’ll write?” His friend asked.

“Of course. As soon as I get home.”

Scorpius grinned and Albus threw his arms around him one last time. 

“What, now we hug twice in one day?” Scorpius joked, but pulled Albus closer anyway. Albus didn’t answer, just let himself lean into his friend.

“I think it’s a two-hug occasion,” said Albus, reluctantly letting go after a moment. “See you in September.”

“Maybe we can do Diagon Alley on the same day?” Scorpius asked hopefully. 

“Yeah, I’m sure we can work that out!”

“Good. Well. Have a nice summer.”

“You too, Scorpius.”

“Albus!” called Ginny. “Want to leave sometime before tomorrow?”

“Not really,” Albus called back.

“Well, I’ve got dinner in the oven,” said his father, coming over and putting an arm on his son’s shoulder, “and I don’t want it to burn. Hello, Scorpius.”

“Hello, Mr. Potter, sir,” Scorpius answered.

“Oh, er, you can call me Harry. Just Harry.”

“Of course, Mr, um… Mr. Harry.”

Albus smirked at Scorpius, who shot him a rather terrifying death glare in response, which worked for all of a second before his grin came back. Harry smiled and waved at him and tugged Albus gently towards the rest of the group. 

“Bye, Scorpius!” Albus called over his shoulder. 

“Write soon!” his friend called. 

And with that, the five Potters pushed through the platform barrier and found themselves back in the muggle world for the summer.

 

It was all of two days before Albus got a letter from Scorpius. He woke up just after sunrise to an owl hooting and tapping against his window and let it in eagerly, opening the letter and letting the owl perch on his dresser. 

 

_ Albus,  _

_ I can’t sleep. It’s three in the morning. I did a bit of homework in our library, but then dad came in and told me to go to bed, so now I’m writing you. Have you done the history essay yet? I’m having some trouble picking a topic, so I thought I’d just write a few and then turn in whichever comes out most interesting.  _

_ Anyway, home is boring. It seems a bit slow after Hogwarts, and dad’s cooking is nothing like the school’s. Although, dad’s being a little less obnoxious this year. I think a death scare really did him a lot of good. I mean, he’s trying harder, at least. It’s nice. Hope all’s well at the Potter household. _

_ I guess I don’t really have that much to say. I just saw you two days ago. It feels like longer, but it was two days.  _

_ You know, I’m almost excited for school to start again. I feel like this year’s going to be better.  _

_ ~Scorpius _

 

Albus read the letter with an exasperated grin, wasting no time in finding a pen and paper to scribble a response. 

 

_ Scorpius, _

_ Thanks a lot, your owl woke me up. I’m not even going to ask why you decided to do homework in the dead of night, or why you’re so enthusiastic about a history essay (want to give me the one you decide not to turn in?), or why you took the time to write me about three sentences (not that I’m complaining, of course. Three sentences is better than no sentences).  _

_ I’m glad your dad is being cool. My family’s sort of let me be so far, except James, but, you know, he’s James. We’ve had Teddy over for dinner already, and I think Rose and Hugo and their parents are coming around soon, so mum and dad have been a bit distracted.  _

_ I’ve been thinking about next year too. I hope you’re right and it gets better (not that I hate Hogwarts, but, you know, it never feels quite like home). Maybe it will seem better, with everything that happened. Seeing literal hell Hogwarts sort of put regular Hogwarts into perspective, even if hell Hogwarts made no sense at all and shouldn’t really have been able to exist (Do you understand why that was possible? I sure don’t). I think I sort of get now what my dad always says about Hogwarts being special, about things happening there that don’t happen in other places. It’s not so much the school itself, more all the magic in one place.  _

_ But anyway, I’m happy to sit back and enjoy a break. I’m sure I’ll put off my homework until the last day of August.  _

_ Miss you!  _

_ ~Albus _

 

Albus sent Scorpius’s owl back with his letter and added the one he’d gotten to a stack he’d accumulated over the years. He kept a space on his bookshelf for the pile of letters that Scorpius sent him over the summer, saving them to read if he was ever bored or missed his friend. It was barely six in the morning, but at this point he’d been up too long to go back to sleep, so he slipped downstairs to the kitchen. 

Half an hour later, Albus heard footsteps on the stairs and glanced up from his toast to see his father wandering into the kitchen. 

“Morning, Dad,” he said, turning back to his food. Harry looked over in surprise. 

“Hi, Al. You’re up early.” Harry filled a mug with water and made it steam with a wave of his wand, dropping in a tea bag.

“Yeah, letter from Scorpius. I wanted to write back.”

“Speaking of that,” said Harry, sitting across from Albus and taking a long drink of tea, “I was talking to your grandmother and she told me to make sure you know that Scorpius is welcome to visit the Burrow when we’re all there in August.”

Albus looked up from his breakfast, eyes widening at his father. “To visit the Burrow?”

“Yeah.”

“With us?”

“No, just to meet your grandmother,” Harry deadpanned. “Yes, with us. He probably couldn’t stay long, you know how crowded it gets with everyone, but she said she’d be happy to have him for a few nights.”

“Can I borrow Lucy?” said Albus, already crossing the room to the family owl’s cage.

“Sure, but tell Scorpius to send her right back, alright?”

“Yeah, okay!” Albus grabbed a pen and paper off the counter and started scribbling his note.

 

_ Scorpius, _

_ You’ve probably just gotten my last letter, but I had to write again – I’ve just found out that my grandmother’s invited you to come stay with us for a couple of days next month! My whole family will be there and they have this cool house in the country. You could come into Diagon Alley with us and spend the night! Ask your dad, okay?  _

_ You have to come!  _

_ ~Albus _

_ P.S. - send Lucy back quick, dad wants her here. Also, I need to know if you’re coming. _

 

Albus hastily let Lucy out to attach the letter and lifted her out the window, watching her brown wings beat against the clear blue sky. 

“I hope he can come,” said Albus to his father as he sat back down. 

“If his father says no, I’m sure uncle George can take you in a flying car to whisk him off anyway,” said Harry. Albus laughed at his father’s mention of the popular family story, which no one told around Mrs. Weasley because, after all these years, it could still inspire a lecture. It was a favorite in the Potter household, though. 

“Well, I hope he’s not being kept with bars on his windows,” said Albus. 

“I think he’s in slightly better hands than I was,” muttered Harry. “Now, what do you say we surprise your mother and clean up our own breakfast mess for once?”

 

Albus didn’t have to wait long for Scorpius’s reply. It came late that night, which meant Scorpius must have written a quick reply and sent Lucy straight back. His reply was hastily scrawled on the back of what looked like an old Potions homework assignment. 

 

_ Albus,  _

_ Really? Your family would want me there? I’d love to come! As long as I’m not intruding or anything. I’d been planning on spending August alone in the library, which is, of course, a very worthwhile way to spend my time, but I'd rather see you. And also Rose. She’ll be there, I’m guessing? I’ve heard so much about the giant Weasley family, It would be great to finally meet everyone. My father says he’s not flying anywhere with me because he has some sort of important work, but tell me when and I’ll floo powder there!  _

_ ~Scorpius _

 

Albus grinned happily at the accepted invitation, but something about the letter bothered him. He read it over a few more times until he could pinpoint it – Rose. It was what had been bothering him at the end of the school year too; Rose, or, more accurately, Scorpius’s weird focus on her. 

To Albus, it had seemed totally out of nowhere. Rose had been nothing but rude to Scorpius, ignorant and dismissing, too proud of her family to give him a chance. Scorpius was kind and sweet and smart and had plenty of other people he could go after, though Albus found himself wishing Scorpius wouldn’t go after anyone at all – it was nice being just the two of them, best friends with no one in between. 

But he ignored the add-on about Rose as best he could and wrote a quick reply to his friend, telling him about the Burrow and his grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins, hoping he was making it sound fun and worth a few days. Albus had never looked forward to a visit to the Burrow as much as he was looking forward to this one. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope that was good! Comments/kudos/feedback make my day, and I'm on tumblr @simon-snowman if you want to come chill with me (I'm nice, I promise)


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 2 is here! This one's a little longer. I wrote literally all day yesterday and got like 5k words done, so the next update should be in the next couple days :) Enjoy!

The morning that the Potters left for the Burrow was hectic, as usual. They were heading straight from there to the Hogwarts train on September first, so everyone needed their school things, and everything for the vacation. James ducked into Albus’s room in a panic.

“Al, have you seen my broom?”

“Lily was riding it yesterday,” called Ginny from the room next door.

“LILY!” James yelled, dashing up the stairs.

“Shut it, James, you said I could use it!”

“I said you could use it if you put it back!”

Albus rolled his eyes and dragged his trunk into the living room. Only three days until Scorpius would come meet him and his family at the Burrow for a trip to Diagon Alley and a night over.

The rest of the family finally made it out to the car, and half an hour later, they were on the highway.

The Burrow was already buzzing with life when the Potters pulled down the driveway. Tall bright purple flowers waved gently back in forth in the overgrown garden, a stray chicken running out of the way of James as he swung his car door open and jumped out. The light was on in the garage – probably Mr. Weasley working on one thing or another – and Albus could see Rose and Hugo playing chess on the front steps. They stood up and hurried down the driveway when they saw the car pull in, laughing and greeting the family. Ron and Hermione appeared in the doorway a second later.

“My favorite nephew!” said Ron, clapping Albus on the back.

“Hey!” said James, “I thought I was your favorite.”

“It’s a draw,” said Ron. “How’ve you been?”

“Hello, everyone, how’s summer?” asked Hermione brightly, cutting in and pulling the boys into hugs.

“Stop stealing my moment, Hermione.”

“What, I don’t get to hug my favorite family?”

The two lead the way into the Burrow, all energy and easy happiness. It was always like that at the Burrow.

After greeting everyone, Albus dragged his trunk up the winding stairs to the room he was sharing with James and Hugo (Ron’s old room), and was surprised to see Rose already there.

“Hello,” she said with a tentative smile.

“Shouldn’t you be downstairs with everyone?”

Rose shrugged. “I slipped up here. I wanted to see you.”

Albus avoided her eyes as he pushed his trunk under the bed. “Okay.”

“Listen, Al, I want to be friends again this summer,” she said, sitting cross-legged on the bed.

“We are friends,” said Albus, sitting across from her.

“No, you know what I mean… actually friends.” She fidgeted with the quilt.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. And at school, too. I’m sorry I was such an arse this year. It was unfair to you and I didn’t mean it.”

Albus raised his eyebrows. Rose Granger-Weasley, apologizing? This was one for the history books.

“I don't blame you,” he said. “You’ve got your quidditch friends and your Gryffindor friends. I wouldn’t want to hang out with me, either.”

Rose rolled her eyes at him. “I want to hang out with you too, though, Al. I missed you last year. The last few years, really.”

“More like you just want in on our next adventure,” said Albus with a smirk. Rose laughed.

“Well, maybe that too.”

“And Scorpius?” Albus asked tentatively.

“I’ll tolerate him,” said Rose, as if she was agreeing to take a dragon for a walk. “Only because I miss you and you two are attached at the hip.”

“No, I mean…” Albus trailed off.

“I’m not interested in dating your best friend,” said Rose flatly. “Don’t worry, he’s all yours.”

Albus laughed, slightly relieved. “I don’t care if he dates anyone, I just thought his crush on you came a bit out of nowhere.”

“It really did,” said Rose, “which is why I don’t think he actually likes me.”

“You don’t?” said Albus, surprised.

“No,” said Rose, obviously having thought this out. “I think he’s probably more interested in someone else and just hasn’t figured it out yet.”

“Who’s the someone else?”

“What do you think I am, psychic?”

“Well, you seem to know every other detail of his love life!”

Just then, the door banged open, and James and Hugo entered, dragging their trunks.

“Hey, you two,” said Hugo.

“Whose love life are we talking about?” asked James curiously.

“No one,” said Albus hastily, at the same time that Rose said, “Just Albus’s friend. Why, do you have any information you’d like to share?”

“Ah, young love. Is this the one who’s got his eye on you?”

Rose groaned. “What, does everyone know?”

“Not everyone, I was just surprised when he asked you out because I thought he…” James shot a look at Albus and stopped talking.

“Thought he what?” Albus prompted.

“Nothing. I don’t really know him, anyway,” said James.

Before Albus could ask him what he thought he knew about Scorpius, his grandmother was calling everyone down to lunch, and the conversation was abandoned. Even though no one brought it up again, the words nagged at Albus. What was he missing about his best friend that James thought he knew?

 

The next few days at the Burrow flew by in a flurry of food, family members, and elaborately ridiculous projects planned by Lily, James, and sometimes Ron and George. Albus was relieved to be more or less getting on with Rose again. She was certainly making an effort. With her insistence that he be included in every prank and plan, Albus felt completely welcomed in his enormous family for the first time in years. They were back to a tentative friendship, still careful not to overstep and offend the other, but finally back on each other’s good sides.

Albus was woken up on the morning of Scorpius's arrival by James and Hugo, loudly running out of the room to go find breakfast. Albus stretched and checked the time. 8:26. Only an hour and thirty-four minutes before Scorpius would be there – not that he was counting or anything. He hurried through breakfast and did his best to straighten up his room a bit before settling down on the sofa to wait. The rest of the family was hurrying around the house, finding their bags and school lists for the Diagon Alley trip. 

“Hey there, Al,” said a voice from behind him. Ron had wandered into the room, and he plopped down next to Albus on the couch. “Waiting for your friend?”

“Yep. He should be here any minute,” said Albus.

“Hermione punched his dad once, you know. Third year. Beautiful.” Albus laughed. He’d only met Draco a few times, and he seemed all right, if a little stiff and self-centered.

Albus’s laughter was cut off by a low whooshing sound from the fireplace. There were a few bumping sounds, the sound of distant coughing, a flash of swirling orange light, and then Albus was watching as Scorpius tumbled out of the fireplace, gripping his backpack and blinking at the living room, trying to get his bearings.

“Scorpius!” exclaimed Albus, jumping up and pulling his friend to his feet and into a hug. Scorpius laughed.

“Merlin, Albus, let me brush this ash off, at least,” he said, untangling himself from Albus to shake dust off his jeans and T-shirt. Albus watched, grinning.

“Hello, Scorpius,” called Harry, leaning around the kitchen doorway and smiling.

“Is he here?” called Albus’s grandmother, rushing into the room. “Scorpius! So lovely to meet you, dear,” she said warmly, ruffling his hair. “I’m so glad you could come. Are you hungry?”

“Oh, no, that’s okay, Mrs. Weasley,” said Scorpius. “Thank you so much for inviting me.”

“Of course, dear, of course, it’s no trouble at all. You can go on up with Albus, then, you’ll be sharing a room with him. It’ll be rather cramped, I’m afraid, but-”

“Thanks, Grandma!” said Albus, taking Scorpius’s sleeve and tugging him away from the conversation, towards the stairs.

“Tell me if you need anything!” she called after them. She turned to Harry and Ron.

“You know, those boys remind me of you two. Inseparable,” she said with a smile.

“Nah, they’re a bit different,” said Ron. “We had Hermione and the rest at school. They’re all about each other.”

Hermione nodded. “It’s sweet, don’t you think? They’re so close.”

“I just hope he has enough friends,” said Harry. “He’s so uninterested in anyone other than Scorpius.”

“He’ll be fine,” said Molly cheerily. “He might not be the most social boy, but he’s got Scorpius. They’re good for each other.”

Albus lead Scorpius upstairs, giving him a hurried tour. “That one’s Rose and Lily’s, and that’s where Mum and Dad are staying, and there’s Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione, and we’re right here,” he said, throwing the door to their room open. Scorpius looked around.

“Why are the walls bright orange?”

“It used to be Uncle Ron’s room, you know, for the Chudley Cannons,” said Albus, sitting on the bed. “I know it’s a bit small for both of us and the other boys, but enough beds fit. And I was thinking that – if you want to, of course – we could camp outside tonight.”

Scorpius raised his eyebrows. “Camping? Like, with bugs? At night?”

Albus laughed. “What, are you scared of the dark?”

“Aren't there gnomes in the garden?”

“You’re afraid of _gnomes?_ ”

“Not _afraid_ of gnomes, I’d just rather not wake up to a crowd of them!” said Scorpius in between Albus’s laughter. “Oh, shut up.”

“Come on, we’ve got to go,” said Albus, still grinning and pulling out his school shopping list. “Diagon Alley!”

The boys started heading downstairs at top speed, and Albus nearly collided with Rose on the second floor landing.

“Watch it!” she yelped, jumping back, then looking up. “Oh. Hello, Scorpius.”

“Hi, Rose!” said Scorpius enthusiastically.

“Hey, since you’re here,” she said, glancing around, “could I talk to you for a minute?”

Albus met Scorpius’s confused expression and shrugged, in an “I really don’t know what she wants with us” sort of way, but he turned to Rose and moved towards her bedroom.

“All right, but make it quick, we’re leaving soon,” said Albus.

“Oh, er,” said Rose, gripping Albus’s arm and spinning him around. “I meant Scorpius. Like, just Scorpius.”

“Oh,” said Albus, baffled. Scorpius looked between the two of them, then shrugged and followed Rose to her room.

“It’ll only take a minute,” said Rose, following Scorpius inside and closing the door, leaving Albus standing, confused and slightly concerned, on the landing.

Scorpius and Rose made it to the bottom of the stairs just as their grandmother had started ushering people into the fireplace with handfuls of floo powder.

“And everyone wait when we get there,” she called over the chatter. “We’ll go in together.”

Albus tried to shoot Scorpius a questioning look, but his friend was staring at the ground. He frowned at Rose, who shook her head and mouthed, _later._ Before he could question either of them further, he was pushed towards the fireplace. He tossed the floo powder, shut his eyes, and with a spin and a tug, the Burrow was gone.

 

Diagon Alley was full of witches and wizards doing their back-to-school shopping, which meant that Gringotts lines wound out the door. Ginny craned her neck, counting the number of people ahead of them in the queue.

“Listen,” she said, turning to Albus, Scorpius, and Rose, “We could be here ages. Why don’t you three go look around and meet us back in half an hour or so? Get an ice cream or something,” she suggested.

“I should stay with my parents,” said Rose. “You two go ahead.”

“You sure?” said Albus, frowning at her. This was unusual.

“Yeah, I’ll see you in a bit.” She raised her eyebrows and shot a smile at Scorpius as the two turned to leave the bank.

Albus had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. What was with the knowing glances between his two friends? Why the private conversations? What if – his stomach twisted at the thought – what if Rose actually was interested in Scorpius? What if his friend was whisked away from him by his cousin?

“So what’s up with Rose?” asked Albus as soon as they were on the steps.

“Nothing,” said Scorpius. “Where do you want to go?”

“What do you mean, nothing? I saw that eye contact,” Albus teased, elbowing his friend lightly.

“It’s nothing like _that,_ ” said Scorpius quickly. “She turned me down pretty effectively, actually.”

Albus felt oddly relieved. “Did she really? Sucks, mate.”

“No, I actually… well. I mean, I guess I’m a little disappointed, but she’s right.”

“About what?”

“We’re just not the people for each other, and she has other stuff going on,” said Scorpius vaguely.

“What sort of other stuff?”

“Nothing important. Can we go to Florean Fortescue’s? It’s hot out.”

Albus saw right through this change of subject, but he let it drop as the boys walked to the ice cream parlor, which had kept the name even though Florean had vanished years ago. Two large cones of chocolate fudge ice cream later, they returned to the steps of Gringotts to wait on the rest of the family.

Albus kept an eye on Scorpius and Rose as the large group made their way through book shops and restaurants and the pet store, but they were both acting perfectly normal, if a bit more friendly to each other and Albus. He tried to ask Rose what that morning had been about with no success.

“What’d you tell Scorpius?” he whispered when Scorpius was distracted in Flourish and Blotts.

“Nothing, just that I wasn’t interested and why. Should I get this?” she asked, holding up a book titled _Five Easy Steps to an O: Acing your O.W.L.s (without a cheat quill)._

“I think you’ve got exams in the bag, Rose,” said Albus. “It wasn’t anything about me, was it?”

“Of course not,” she said, “not specifically. I think I’ll get this, it could be useful.”

“What do you mean, not specifically?”

“Merlin, Al, it wasn’t anything important. All that matters is we're not together and we won't be. I’m going to go buy this,” said Rose, pushing past him and joining the queue for the register. Albus sighed in frustration.

“What’s wrong?” asked Scorpius, suddenly appearing beside him.

“Oh, nothing, just Rose being Rose,” he said. “What’ve you got there?”

Scorpius enthusiastically explained every book he’d bought to Albus as they left the store, making their way down the street and back to the large fireplace in the Leaky Cauldron courtyard with the rest of the family. Albus loved listening to Scorpius talk, even when he was being a complete nerd. For the first time, he noticed that Scorpius had grown a bit since term ended; He was now taller than Albus by an inch or two. His hair had grown, too, hanging loosely around his face. He had also started wearing glasses sometimes, which suited him well. 

Albus started a bit when he realized he'd been so caught up in studying his friend's appearance that he'd completely missed the last few things Scorpius had said. He quickly looked away, then glanced back at him. 

"Hello? Earth to Albus?" said Scorpius, elbowing him. "You in there?"

"Yeah, yeah, sorry, I'm just tired," he answered.  _Why am I thinking about how good-looking Scorpius is?_ he thought to himself as his friend resumed his talking. He did his best to shake the feeling and focus on what Scorpius was saying, and didn't let himself think about it for the rest of the day. 

 

After an enormous family dinner complete with every Weasley sibling, most of the cousins, and Teddy Lupin, Scorpius and Albus slipped upstairs and shut the door to their room.

“I love it here,” said Scorpius, flopping down on his cot and staring up at the ceiling. “There’s so much food.”

Albus laughed. “It’s usually a bit more boring. People are just more interested in me now that they don’t think we’re the little kids anymore.”

“And it helps that you and Rose are on speaking terms,” Scorpius pointed out.

“Yeah, probably.”

“So are we camping outside?”

Albus shrugged. “If you want.”

“I think we should.”

“I thought you were afraid of gnomes,” teased Albus.

“I’m not afraid of gnomes! And I want to be able to talk without other people hearing things.” Scorpius lowered his voice and bit his lip.

“Okay,” said Albus, confused, but he figured he would find out whatever Scorpius was thinking soon enough. “Let’s get some sleeping bags, then.”

 

An hour later, when everyone had started going to bed or heading home, the boys left the house with backpacks and sleeping bags, walking for a bit before picking a spot under a large willow tree. They could still see the Burrow, and they could probably be seen from the windows on the upper floors, but no one would wander past them. It was a perfect spot.

Once they had their sleeping bags spread out, and once Scorpius had cast a few repelling charms, (he claimed they were for bugs and rain, but Albus was still suspicious about the gnomes) Albus turned to his friend.

“So are you going to tell me what happened? With you and Rose?”

“I guess so,” said Scorpius, leaning on one elbow and facing Albus.

“What’d she say to you?”

“Well, she told me that her answer was no and that it wasn’t going to change.”

“Huh. I'm not exactly surprised. How did… I mean, are you upset or anything?”

Scorpius was biting his lip again. “Well, not really. She said… Rose said she didn’t think I was really into her, either.”

“Rose actually told me that she was thinking that,” Albus admitted.

“Yeah, I know, she said she’d mentioned it to you.” Scorpius fell quiet for a moment.

“So she told you that she thinks you like someone else?” prompted Albus.

“Oh. Er. Yeah, yeah, she did.”

“And…” said Albus, waiting for his friend to elaborate.

“Well, I thought about what she said,” said Scorpius hesitantly, “And I think she might be right. She had… a few ideas. But it’s nothing I want to, you know, talk about. Not yet.”

Scorpius seemed oddly worked up about a crush, but Albus let it go, sensing that this might be bothering Scorpius more than he’d first thought. It was a bit weird – Albus shared everything with Scorpius, but he was just now realizing that they didn't really talk about girls, not seriously. Albus had always just known that Scorpius was trying to go after Rose, and they would joke about it, but they never brought up actual feelings. The topic made Albus feel weirdly nervous, he realized as he studied his friend carefully.

“All right, mate," he said, "You can talk when you want, though.”

“Thanks, Albus.”

A quiet fell over the boys for so long that both of them were wondering if the other had fallen asleep. Albus finally spoke up again.

“You’re my best mate, Scorpius,” he whispered carefully. “You can tell me anything.”

“I know,” Scorpius answered. “I just… don’t really have anything to say just now. Except that I don’t think I like Rose. Not like that.”

“Okay,” said Albus, smiling to himself in the dark. “Well, goodnight.”

“Goodnight, Albus.”

Albus tentatively reached out and brushed his fingers against Scorpius's – a reassurance, an  _I'm here if you need me_. He heard a sharp intake of breath from his friend, but he didn't pull away until Albus did, blushing.  _Why did I do that? Merlin, he knows you've got his back, you don't need to go holding hands,_ Albus thought, his mind racing. 

Even so, he thought as he drifted asleep, it had been sort of nice. And Scorpius didn't pull away... 

 

The next day of Scorpius’s visit was the shortest day of Albus’s life. They spent the morning wandering the fields and hills around the Burrow, and after lunch they walked with James, Rose, and Lily into Ottery St. Catchpole. Scorpius was fascinated by the simplest muggle items, which was hilarious, and – _why am I thinking of this?_ – a little cute, Albus realized. (“Albus! Albus, look, this big box thing just spits out food when you put in money!” “It’s just a vending machine, Scorpius, you dork.”)

Neither of them said a word about their conversation the night before, and Albus thought this made sense – it wasn't as if there was more to say. All the same, though, he found himself wanting to talk to Scorpius alone again. 

After dinner, Scorpius checked his watch and sighed. “I need to get going, Dad expected me home twenty minutes ago.” Albus groaned and followed Scorpius to his room to help him gather up his things.

As soon as Scorpius was packed and in front of the fireplace, he pulled Albus into a hug. Albus closed his eyes and held tight to his friend, reminding himself that they’d be together again in just over a week.

“Thanks for coming,” said Albus, his arms still around Scorpius.

“Of course! Thanks for inviting me,” said Scorpius, taking a half step back and letting a hand slide down Albus’s shoulder, letting his hand linger on his friend's forearm for a moment before turning to Molly.

“Thank you for letting me stay!” he said, taking a handful of floo powder and stepping into the fireplace.

“Oh, it was no trouble at all, I’m glad Albus here could have you,” said Mrs. Weasley, smiling warmly at him. “Enjoy the rest of your holiday.”

Scorpius gave Albus one last smile, threw down the powder, and spun out of sight, leaving Albus alone in the living room once again, with a strange feeling in the pit of his stomach.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope that was good! Comments/kudos/feedback make my day, and I'm on tumblr @thefourthschuyler if you want to come chill with me :)


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello hello hello! Here, have some Hogwarts fluff and clueless idiots who can't get their shit together. I hope you like this chapter, and thank you so so much to everyone reading, commenting, and leaving kudos – feedback is awesome and I love you all for it!

September first came up faster than anyone was expecting it, and the morning was busy with frantic last-minute packing. After lengthy good-byes to everyone, the Potters had loaded back into their car and set off for London. 

An hour later, Albus found himself once again standing on Platform 9 and three-quarters, gazing at the scarlet steam engine and feeling like he’d just been here yesterday. Summer had really flown by. Albus waited for the familiar sense of dread that usually accompanied heading back to school, but to his surprise, it didn't come. People he vaguely knew from school were waving and smiling at him when he caught their eyes. He would be seeing Scorpius in a few minutes. In fact, Albus wasn't dreading school at all – he felt, for the first time, ready to go back. 

“Excited for school?” Harry asked from behind Albus. Albus turned. 

“Maybe a bit. I think I can make the most of this year.”

Harry grinned. “Good. Merlin, you’re tall,” he muttered. It was true – Albus had shot up quite a bit, and was now almost level with his father. 

“I’ll write every week,” he said, smiling and embracing Harry. 

“Good. Stay out of trouble, and do your homework.”

“Will do,” said Albus. 

“Don’t get into too much trouble,” said Ginny sternly, pulling Albus into a hug.

“Only a little bit?” Albus joked. 

“It’s Hogwarts, I’m keeping my expectations low,” said Ginny sarcastically. “Have fun, be smart, do your work.”

“Okay, mum. I’ll see you at Christmas.”

Albus broke away from his parents and followed James and Lily onto the train. Both of them found friends in the first car, but Albus kept making his way to the back. He finally found Scorpius, sitting alone in a compartment and reading a textbook with his wand tucked behind his ear. He also had a pair of glasses on, which was new.

“Hello,” said Albus, grinning and going into the compartment.

“Albus!” said Scorpius, jumping up to hug him.

“It’s only been a week,” said Albus, laughing with his best friend as they leaned into each other. 

“Can I sit?” asked a voice from the doorway. Albus turned to see Rose, standing cautiously with her trunk. He carefully pulled away from Scorpius.

“Gryffindor girls’ compartment full?” asked Albus, but he smiled and moved out of the way for her. 

“Maybe I just want to sit with you,” said Rose, shoving her trunk under a seat and sitting down across from the boys. 

The three waved out the window at parents and friends as the train started to move, rolling through a short tunnel and then into the open air. 

For the first time on the train, Albus found himself being introduced to people, most of them coming in to greet Rose, but two of them (both Slytherins) coming in just to see Albus and Scorpius.

“See, people like you,” said Rose once a fourth-year Hufflepuff called Lexie Thomas-Finnigan left after sitting with them for a bit. She had seemed to know Rose well.

“No, people like  _ you, _ ” joked Scorpius. “You get along with everyone.”

Rose sighed. “You two are so thick. I just know her from quidditch stuff, she’s a fantastic beater.”

“See, it’s good that you’re hanging around us now,” said Albus. “We’re hopeless on our own.”

“Oh, I think the two of you were doing just fine,” said Rose, rolling her eyes.

All three of them politely turned down snacks from the trolley, anxiously waiting for the witch to be on her way. 

 

The Great Hall was, as usual, loud and energetic. The ceiling showed a grey, cloudy night above the tables and candles. Professor McGonagall waited for everyone to take her seats, then stood to make an announcement.

“Attention! Attention, students! Thank you. Welcome back, everyone, to another year of school. If you could please direct your attention to the first years before we begin the feast,” she requested, and Professor Longbottom entered the Great Hall carrying the sorting hat perched on a stool. 

Albus and Scorpius applauded for every new first-year, all of them slightly nervous-looking and much shorter than Albus could remember being. 

After everyone had taken their place, the food rose up to the tables – mountains of potatoes and chicken, which were replaced by cakes and tarts a while later. After dessert and a brief reminder of rules from McGonagall, Albus and Scorpius were swept up in the flood of students, walking down two flights of stairs, through a narrow corridor, and finally through the door to the Slytherin common room.

Everything was exactly how Albus remembered upstairs in their dormitory, though the other three boys – Drew, Andrey, and Peter – were more talkative, asking about holidays and classes for the year. Albus mentioned this to Scorpius later in the common room. 

“Well, now that we’ve destroyed and then saved the world, they’re noticing us,” Scorpius said, unwrapping a chocolate frog. “It’s not even that new, they were more friendly at the end of last year too.”

“Yeah, well, I was a bit preoccupied at the end of last year,” said Albus.

“We both were. But, you know, we could always try being decently friendly now.”

Albus laughed. “I’m decently friendly!”

Scorpius shrugged, grinning. “Yeah, I suppose you’re all right.” 

After the two got too tired to stay up any longer, they returned to their dormitory. For the first time since first year, as he watched Scorpius drift off in the bed across from him, Albus finally felt peaceful. At home. 

 

Scorpius and Albus walked down to breakfast together the next morning, anxious to see their schedules. 

“With our luck, we’ll get everything boring on our first day,” said Albus. 

“Nothing’s boring!” said Scorpius. His eyes were lighting up with first-day excitement that burned out for most students after their second year or so. Scorpius, though, was always excited.

“History of Magic,” Albus pointed out. 

“Are you kidding? It’s fascinating! I wrote about the African Vampire’s Rebellion of 1893 for my essay, apparently it’s a subject on the O.W.L, and it was-”

“Nerd,” said Albus, grinning.

“Oh, shut up. I’m your smarter half.”

“That’s for sure,” said Rose’s voice as she suddenly ran into them in the doorway of the Great Hall. “Excited for classes?”

“Let’s see what we’ve got,” said Albus as they hurried to the Slytherin table to find their schedules. “Okay, Care of Magical Creatures, Charms, lunch, then Potions, and – ugh, I knew it – History of Magic.” 

“Perfect!” said Scorpius, looking over his shoulder. “Everything together today! Except I have Ancient Runes first.”

“And we’ve got Charms together,” said Rose, looking at their schedules. 

Albus groaned. “Charms with the Gryffindors? That’ll be a blast.”

“Hey, as my mum always says, we can’t encourage hostile inter-house relations,” said Rose, assuming an official and cocky voice to quote her mother, which was oddly accurate. The boys laughed.

“This isn’t hostile, this is friendly rivalry,” said Scorpius. “You know, a healthy incentive to work harder.”

“I’ll definitely put in more effort if it means out-testing a Slytherin at the end of the year,” said Rose. 

“Don’t kill each other yet,” said Albus, rolling his eyes. “Wait until at least the second week.”

He watched Scorpius laugh at his jokes, self-consciously adjusting his new glasses every now and then. It was so, so good to be back with him, the person who understood and accepted and appreciated him. For at least the second time in two days, sitting at breakfast with his friends, Albus felt right at home. 

 

Albus found it easy to slip back into the routine of Hogwarts. He was getting his homework in mostly on time, even though the classes were harder than ever. He spent as much time as he could with Scorpius and Rose, but his schedule had very little free time, and Rose had quidditch almost every day. Scorpius was taking as many classes as he could, so he was usually busy. Still, though, it was nice to even just sit with him, study with him, be near him. Whenever he walked in the room, Albus felt himself relax a bit, smile more. 

Albus and Scorpius didn’t get a real amount of time to themselves until almost the end of September. Both of them had caught up on homework, starting to get used to the O.W.L. level workload, and most of the others had gone to watch the quidditch match – Hufflepuff versus Slytherin. Sitting in Slytherin house with Scorpius and talking about anything from the drama among the Hogwarts ghosts to the likelihood of teachers going easy on them later in the year felt just like how Hogwarts should be.

After half an hour of lounging in the common room, Scorpius stood up and stretched. 

“Albus. Walk with me?” he asked, holding out a hand.

“Sure,” said Albus, letting his friend help him up and following him out the door. “Where are we going?”

“Have you ever found the Room of Requirement?” Scorpius asked, grinning. 

“No, but I think I’ve heard of it,” said Albus, “Maybe from my dad? Or James? Is it the room where…”

“It’s the one that turns into whatever you need it to be.”

“Do you know where it is?” Asked Albus, intrigued and excited.

“My dad mentioned it once this summer,” said Scorpius, leading the way up a slowly sinking staircase, which made their climb especially long. The two climbed up eight full flights of stairs before Scorpius, panting, finally turned onto a wide but empty corridor, studying the wall. 

“Okay,” he said, “It should be right here… one second.”

Albus watched as Scorpius paced back and forth along a stretch of wall, muttering to himself. After his third pass, Albus grabbed his arm. 

“Scorpius, look!”

A brown, wooden door, looking exactly like the door to a regular classroom, had appeared in the stone. Scorpius grinned, his eyes lighting up with excitement. “We found it, Albus! Finally, we’ve been looking for years! Let’s go.”

The room looked a bit like a small library or living room. There were shelves of books, a sofa and armchairs, and a few cabinets. 

“Whoa,” breathed Scorpius, running his fingers over the bookshelf. 

Albus tested the sofa, sinking into the comfortable cushions. 

“This is so cool, Scorpius,” he said, examining the strange assortment of magical gadgets on a small table beside the couch. 

“Want to hear about muggle technology at Hogwarts?” said Scorpius, pulling a book off the shelf and jumping onto the couch with so much enthusiasm that he ended up practically on top of Albus. Albus yelped and scooted further up the couch to make a little more room, but it didn’t do much. 

Scorpius didn’t seem to mind the closeness, pressing himself into Albus to keep from falling onto the floor as he flipped through his book, reading quietly. Albus studied the room, the books, the odd magical bits and pieces, and when he’d taken it all in, his gaze fell to his friend.

Scorpius’s hair fell around his face as he eagerly flew through his book. Every few minutes, he’d reach up and steady his glasses, and his arm would brush Albus’s shoulder. Albus’s arm was pinned a bit uncomfortably between him and Scorpius’s side, so he moved it carefully to the arm of the sofa, letting it rest behind Scorpius. His friend leaned further towards Albus, resting his head on his shoulder. Albus wasn’t entirely sure what was going on, wasn’t entirely sure when Scorpius had gotten so touchy, but, strangeness aside, he almost enjoyed it. He could smell Scorpius’s shampoo (something fresh and light) and the weight against him was oddly comforting.

“Hey, Albus,” said Scorpius, looking up. Albus quickly tried to look like he hadn’t been staring at his friend. The room suddenly felt uncomfortably hot. 

“Yeah?” he replied. 

“So you know muggle cellular telephones?” 

Albus laughed. “Mobiles? Of course. What about them?”

“There’s a French witch doing research about making them work at places like Hogwarts, where they usually flip out because of the magic. This book is really up-to-date, it talks about…” Scorpius trailed off. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Hm?” asked Albus, realizing he’d missed the last few words of what Scorpius was saying.

“You’re giving me a weird look.”

“Oh!” said Albus, and now he was certain the room had gotten hotter. “No, go on, I’m just tired.”

“Do you want to head back?” asked Scorpius, frowning with concern. “You keep looking at me.”

“Well, yeah, you were talking!” said Albus. “And I think we need to head to dinner, actually, it’s going to take ages to get back downstairs.”

“Wow, you’re right,” said Scorpius with surprise, checking his watch. “We were up here a while.”  He slid off the sofa with Albus a step behind him and lead the way back through the castle.

Albus walked a half step behind his friend, wondering where his sudden nervousness and interest around Scorpius had come from. By the time they reached the Great Hall, he had settled on the idea that he was probably just glad that they were both safe after their adventure last year, that Scorpius wasn’t in immediate danger, and also that he wasn’t trying to get with his cousin. It had just been a good few months, and it was nice having Scorpius share it with him. 

 

“Did you two see the Hogsmeade announcement?” Rose asked them at dinner.

“No, when is it?” asked Albus. 

“Halloween, in a couple of weeks. They put it up just after the quidditch match. Slytherin won, by the way.”

“So I gathered,” said Scorpius sarcastically, waving around at the hyper Slytherins and the moping Hufflepuffs. “Anyway, yeah, Hogsmeade. Are you going, Rose?”

“Of course,” she answered.

“Want to come with us?” asked Albus.

“Maybe,” said Rose, “but I might have plans with someone else.”

“Decided you’re too cool for us again?” Albus joked. 

“No,” she said casually, “but I’m not about to turn down a date to hang out with you idiots.”

Albus turned to her, his eyes widening. “You’ve got a date?”

“I guess you’ll find out,” she said smugly, waving goodbye to them cheerily and leaving the hall with Lexie Thomas-Finnigan. 

“Who do you think she’s going with?” asked Albus, puzzled. 

“I… have an idea.”

“Well?”

“You’ll see,” said Scorpius, smirking. 

“You’re infuriating, you know that?” said Albus.

“Thanks, mate, it’s what I strive for.”

Albus groaned. “How would you know this and not me?”

“I’m a charming friend,” said Scorpius. “The ladies trust me.”

“You’re a dork.”

“I always know I’ve won when that’s your retort to something.”

Albus laughed a little. “Well, I can’t argue with that, I guess.”

They ate in silence for a bit before Albus realized something that made his stomach twist. 

“Wait, Scorpius, you don’t… you aren’t the one going with her, are you?”

Scorpius looked up from his soup, a confused frown on his face. “Huh?”

“Going with Rose? To Hogsmeade? It’s not you, is it? I mean, it’s fine – great – if you are, but I thought you said that-”

Scorpius laughed. “Alas, Albus, as I said, I was politely and effectively rejected. And I’d tell you if I had a date!”

Albus laughed too, a bit relieved. He didn’t want to revisit the Rose-related drama. “Okay, yeah, I didn’t think so, I was just wondering…” 

“Nope, Hogsmeade’ll be just us,” said Scorpius, standing up. “And since I didn’t do anything all day, I think it’s homework time.”

Albus groaned. “I hate it, but you’re right.”

“Library?” Scorpius asked as they left the hall. “Or, actually… Room of Requirement?”

Albus grinned. “Don’t you think it’s supposed to be used for something other than studying?”

“Hey, if we require a place to study, that’s what it’ll be!” said Scorpius. “Want to go?”

“Sure,” Albus said with a shrug. “At least it’ll be quiet.”

In his head, though, Albus was wondering if maybe they would have to share the couch again, and also wondering how on earth he would get work done. And then, of course, he wondered why there ideas were suddenly in his mind. All the same, though, the two headed to their new room to study, Albus feeling only a little confused. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading guys! If you wanna come freak out about Harry Potter and other fun stuff with me, I'm on tumblr @simon-snowman. Comments and feedback make me a happy writer, as always!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And I'm back with chapter 4 :D the chapters in this fic are turning out longer than chapters I usually write, so you guys are getting large helpings of trash instead of small doses. 
> 
> Also... I'm just gonna apologize in advance here. Enjoy Albus being the most clueless, awkward person ever to grace the earth.

It was halfway through October, and the days were getting colder fast now. Fires around the castle were always lit, and students started adding their school sweaters under their robes. Albus and Scorpius were spending time almost every day studying in the room of requirement, which always seemed to be a perfect temperature. It was quieter in there, and, Albus thought, the perfect environment to work in. It also meant he saw Scorpius often, and even if they were just studying, it was nice to be around his friend. 

The week before Halloween, Albus and Scorpius were there doing homework after dinner. Albus had been struggling through his Potions essay for at least an hour now, and Scorpius was reading something for Muggle Studies. 

“How’s the essay?” Scorpius asked, looking up from his book. Albus just groaned and dropped his head onto the parchment. 

“That bad?” 

“This is hell,” Albus muttered. 

Scorpius lifted a few books off his pile and tossed a thick volume in the middle at Albus. “Here, you idiot, read chapter six. This book’s got more information than our textbook.”

Albus paged through it and skimmed the section Scorpius had directed him to. “Scorpius, you’re a life saver, you know that?” Albus breathed with relief, picking up his pen. 

“What would you do without me?” he teased. 

“Fail Potions, that’s for sure,” said Albus. They fell quiet again, Albus scribbling and Scorpius reading. Half an hour later, Albus threw down his pen. 

“Done!” he said triumphantly, slamming the book and sliding it across the sofa to Scorpius. “I’m totally done. I have nothing else due tomorrow, or the next day.”

Scorpius grinned. “Me too!”

Albus frowned. “What’re you reading for if you’re done with everything?”

Scorpius shrugged. “Just getting ahead.”

Albus laughed and stretched. “Well, what do we do now? I’m never done with my work, this is weird.” 

“Actually,” said Scorpius, adding his book to the pile on the floor and slowly folding up his glasses, “I sort of need to talk to you.”

“You do?” said Albus, his joy at freedom from schoolwork giving way to nervousness. 

“Don’t worry, it’s nothing about you, it’s just… I’ve been thinking a lot, and I wanted to tell you something.”

“Okay,” said Albus slowly. “Does this have anything to do with what you said this summer at the Burrow? The thing that you said we could talk about later?”

“You remember that?" said Scorpius. "It does, actually." He cast his grey eyes to the floor, his blond hair falling over his face. “Albus, I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you then, but I was just starting to think about it and I didn’t really know what was going on, at first I thought it was nothing but then I had some time to work it out at school and…”

“No, Scorpius, it’s okay. Can you just- I mean, are you alright?”

Scorpius took a breath. “You know how Rose told me that she thought I didn’t like her, and that I maybe like someone else?”

“Yeah…”

“Well, some of the things she said sort of got me thinking about, you know, liking her and actually not liking her and liking other people, and in the last couple of months I kind of realized that I, um…” 

Albus studied his friend carefully, part of him almost starting to understand what Scorpius was trying to say. Scorpius glanced up quickly, and Albus gave him what he hoped was an encouraging nod.

“I started realizing that I like guys,” Scorpius finally said, quiet and hesitant. “Merlin. I’ve never said that.” He took another deep breath. “I think I like girls too. Maybe not as much, I’m not really sure yet. But I definitely like boys. A lot. Most of the time.”

Scorpius finally met Albus’s eyes, his face full of nervousness and his eyes looking a bit watery, and Albus didn’t know why Scorpius looked so afraid and vulnerable, but the expression was heartbreaking. It was nearly making Albus tear up. He never wanted Scorpius to be afraid of him. 

He never wanted Scorpius to be afraid of himself.

Albus took his friend by the hands and pulled him up, carefully putting his arms around Scorpius and holding him close, and Scorpius hugged Albus back fiercely. Albus could smell his shampoo and feel his chest rising and falling shakily as he caught his breath. 

“Listen, Scorpius,” said Albus quietly when his friend’s breathing had steadied again, still holding him close. He tried for a comforting pat-on-the-back sort of thing, but it felt awkward, so he stopped. “I’m your best mate no matter what, okay? I just want you to be happy, I couldn’t care less if you’re gay or bi or whatever.”

He heard Scorpius sigh, felt warm breath on his neck and shoulder. “Thank you, Albus.”

“What, did you think I would care?” said Albus, grinning. “You got to witness my weird interest in Voldemort’s daughter, there’s no way I can judge you for anything after that.”

Scorpius laughed shakily. “I guess that’s true.”

The two finally broke apart, sitting back down on the sofa.

“So,” said Albus, raising his eyebrows and smirking, “who’s the guy?”

“What?” said Scorpius quickly, his cheeks turning pink. “There is no guy.”

“You said Rose was right about you liking someone else.”

“I didn’t necessarily say she was right about  _ that,  _ just that I realized I might not be interested in a girl.”

“Uh huh,” said Albus, grinning. “Let’s see, so for guys in our year we’ve got-”

_ “Albus!” _

 

Albus was starting to wonder if he was maybe being too controlling of his friend. Every time he saw Scorpius being friendly with a boy, he felt a twist in his gut, a worry that his friend might get himself a boyfriend (or maybe a girlfriend) and suddenly have his time occupied with that. It was the same way he’d felt last spring when Scorpius had tried to ask out Rose. He knew he was being unreasonable, but Albus couldn’t bear the thought of losing his friend. 

Scorpius seemed to pick up on it one day after Charms, where he’d been chatting with a very friendly Ravenclaw, leaving Albus with a pang of some aching feeling in his stomach. 

“You okay, Albus?” said Scorpius, nudging his arm. “You look zoned out.”

“No, I’m fine,” said Albus, “Just tired, I guess.”

“Is there a reason you were giving Simon a death glare in Charms?”

Albus laughed. “It wasn’t a death glare. I was just… you know, watching you guys.”

“ _ That’s _ not creepy.”

“No, that’s not what I meant,” said Albus, rolling his eyes. “Simon’s cute, don’t you think?”

Scorpius laughed and elbowed his friend. “Eh, not my type.”

“No? You guys sure seemed friendly.”

Scorpius groaned. “Really, Albus, he was just being nice. I think he was only talking to me because he’s friends with Rose, I’ve seen him around.”

“Everyone’s friends with Rose.”

Scorpius was giving him a funny look, and Albus suddenly worried that he might have overstepped. He needed to stop being selfishly possessive of his friend.  _ Scorpius is allowed to date or not date whoever he wants and it’s none of my business if he doesn’t want to talk about it,  _ Albus told himself firmly. 

“You still want to go to Hogsmeade this weekend?” said Albus, changing the subject. He was sure Scorpius noticed, but he let it slide. 

“Of course, wouldn’t miss it.”

“I hope it’s not still raining,” Albus said. The castle had been shrouded in at least a light drizzle for the better part of a week with no sign of the sun. 

“Yeah,” said Scorpius. They fell silent, left to question that awkward conversation. 

 

“Happy Halloween,” said Albus, glancing at the clock in their dormitory where the boys were studying. 12:02 AM. 

“What, is it midnight already?” said Scorpius with a start, looking up. “Wow. Time flies when you’re doing Transfig homework.”

“I think the phrase is ‘Time flies when you’re having fun.’”

“Same thing.”

“Nerd.”

They locked eyes from their separate beds and burst out laughing. 

“Okay, but really, we should go to sleep soon if we’re going to get up and go to Hogsmeade,” said Albus, closing his Herbology book and running a hand through his hair to push it back. Neither of them had broken eye contact, which made Albus suddenly self-conscious.

“Yeah, yeah…” said Scorpius, finally looking away and pushing his glasses up his nose. “Just a while longer.”

“Well, I’m going to sleep,” said Albus, turning out his light. 

“Mm-kay. Night,” said Scorpius, back to concentrating on his work.

“Night,” said Albus. He could hear the sounds of Scorpius’s papers ruffling and his bed creaking for at least another hour. 

Albus woke up the next morning to a nearly empty dormitory. It looked like most of the boys had gone to Hogsmeade and left him and Scorpius to sleep. Albus stretched, stood up, and, after getting dressed rather loudly and Scorpius still sleeping through it, he figured his friend would be asleep for a while. Albus headed down to the great hall, grabbed some toast and bacon, and brought it all back to his dormitory. 

It was around eleven when he came back, and Scorpius was still asleep. Albus set the food down on his dresser and sat on his bed, his eyes on Scorpius. He looked content and peaceful when he was sleeping, completely tangled up in his blankets and one of his pillows flung to the floor. His smooth blond hair spilled out on his pillow, and a book lay open at the foot of his bed – he must have fallen asleep reading. 

Albus sat on the edge of Scorpius’s bed, trying to decide if he should shake Scorpius lightly or yell something loud and wake him up to a heart attack. 

_ Or,  _ thought Albus,  _ I could just wait here a moment.  _ He was aware that it was a little odd to sit on your best friend’s bed and watch him sleep, but he just looked so at ease, and he had stayed up late, and maybe he would wake up on his own. Albus waited a moment on the edge of his friend’s bed.

“Don’t you think watching me sleep is a bit stalker-y?”

Albus was so shocked that he very nearly fell off the bed. 

“S-sorry,” he stuttered. Scorpius was sitting up and pushing the blankets off, giving Albus a funny look. 

“No, it’s okay. I was just surprised you were there, that’s all.”

Albus combed a hand through his hair, standing up and taking a step away from Scorpius. “I didn’t mean to startle you, I was just… sitting.”

“It’s fine. Sitting is… we sit all the time,” said Scorpius, trying to fill the empty silence. “Just, um, you know… I didn’t expect you on my bed.”

“Yeah. I wasn’t thinking.”

“Albus, it’s okay, you’re always welcome in my bed,” said Scorpius, his face quickly turning red. “I mean-”

“No, I get what-”

“-I was just saying-”

“-Yeah, no, that made sense.”

Both boys were blushing now, standing awkwardly a few feet apart. They made eye contact for a split second, both of them looking away as soon as it happened.

“Hey, is this for me?” Scorpius asked, trying (and failing) to put on a breezy tone and pointing at the food on the dresser. 

“Yeah, I thought I’d save us some time, you know, because of Hogsmeade and, um, breakfast,” said Albus. 

“Yeah. Breakfast.” There was another pause. “Well, are you ready?”

“Yeah, let’s go.”

 

It was a cool day, but the rain seemed to be holding off a bit, leaving behind puddles and a clouded sky. The walk down to the village was quiet and a bit awkward, leaving Albus with a chance to go over whatever had just happened. It wasn’t as though they hadn’t shared close spaces before, and Albus could remember about a dozen times that they had woken each other up by jumping on the mattress. How could that have been any different from those times? Unless... maybe Scorpius thought it was weird to have a boy in his bed, now that they both knew he liked boys? Especially since Albus had just lingered there, not waking him up. Albus hoped that wasn’t it – he didn’t want Scorpius to think he thought of it any differently now, he wanted to go on being friends the way they always had been. 

“Where should we go?” asked Scorpius as they approached the main street in the center of town.

“Honeydukes?” Albus suggested. 

“Sure.”

The inside of the shop was packed with Hogwarts students and a few irritated adults who had picked a bad day to do their shopping. It looked like someone had knocked over a large amount of Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans, and an exasperated employee was attempting to wave students out of the way of the mess to clean it up. Albus tried to stay out of the way and enjoy the chaos, watching Scorpius carefully examine boxes of Sugar Quills. 

“Hey,” said a voice from behind him. Albus spun around, surprised to see Lexie Thomas-Finnigan behind him. 

“Hi,” he said, “what’s up?”

“Just looking around. You haven’t seen Rose, have you?” she asked, glancing around the room.

“No, but we’ve only been here a minute,” said Albus. “You can look in the quidditch store as well, she might be there.”

“Hey, Lexie,” said Scorpius, joining the two of them. “Looking for Rose?”

“Yeah, I am, have you seen her?”

“Nope, sorry.”

Lexie shrugged. “She’s probably late again, she’s always late. Anyway, what are you two up to?”

“We’re just looking around, getting out of school for a day,” said Albus. 

“Just you two?” Lexie asked, making eye contact with Scorpius. His cheeks turned a light shade of pink. 

“Um, no. I mean, yes, but, you know, we’re just, um, here,” Scorpius said helpfully, not looking at Albus.

“Ah, okay,” said Lexie. “Well, sounds fun.”

“Yeah,” said Scorpius.

There was a slightly awkward pause.

“Well, I’m going to go help that poor woman clean up the million spilled Beans, and then go find Rose,” said Lexie, stepping towards the employee still trying to stop students from entering the messy corner so she could vanish the candy. “I’ll see you two later!” 

“Bye!” Albus called after her. He turned to Scorpius. “Want to go to the Three Broomsticks?”

“Yeah, okay,” he said, already turning and hurrying to the door. Albus followed him out, puzzling over what Lexie had been trying to ask. From Scorpius’s reaction and their moment of knowing eye contact, Albus was pretty sure that there had been some sort of second meaning that he missed behind her question about whether it was just the two of them. 

Scorpius lead the way to the Three Broomsticks down the road. The building was also crowded with Hogwarts students and teachers, though the atmosphere was somewhat less chaotic than Honeydukes. 

“Want me to get butterbeers?” asked Scorpius, setting his bag down at an empty table. 

“Yeah, sure,” said Albus, taking the other seat and looking around. He saw James with two Gryffindor girls and a boy in seventh year, along with a few Ravenclaws he knew from his year at a table nearby. Even teachers were out today. 

Scorpius returned with their drinks and slid into his chair without a word to Albus. 

“Want to go to the shrieking shack after this?” asked Albus. 

“Sure.”

They sat in unusual silence for a few minutes.

“Apparently they put up these historical plaque things for some places from the war – you know, the Potterwatch broadcast building and the Death Eater base and stuff. We could check those out.”

“Okay,” said Scorpius, taking another sip of butterbeer. Albus was really a bit concerned now; It was incredibly unlike Scorpius to not be ridiculously enthusiastic about something like historical markers. 

“Hey, are you all right?” he asked finally.

“Yeah, I’m good. Shrieking shack?” he asked, standing up. 

“Yeah, let’s go,” said Albus. He followed him outside, still a little confused at his best friend’s sudden change of character. 

 

Scorpius’s mood didn’t improve much at Hogsmeade, so the two only stayed a few hours before heading back to school. Albus hated this stiffness – this was  _ Scorpius _ , and everything was supposed to be easy and okay with Scorpius. 

His mood finally seemed to pick up at the feast. Scorpius fell into a conversation with the other boys in their year, and James and Lily approached the Slytherin table to talk to Albus.

“Saw you at the Three Broomsticks, little bro,” said James. “How was Hogsmeade?”

“Not bad. What’d you do, Lils?” The youngest Potter was still a second year, too young to go to on the trips.

“Just stayed here,” said his sister, sighing dramatically. “I asked James where the passage to Hogsmeade is, I know he’s found it, but of course he won’t tell me.”

“You’ve got to find it yourself, that’s half the fun!” James protested. 

“Says the one who only found it by nicking Dad’s map,” said Albus, grinning. 

“I didn’t  _ steal  _ the map, I had express permission to look at it from Uncle George, and he had permission from Dad. I had, like, second-hand permission.”

“D’you know where it is, Albus?” asked Lily.

“Not the one to Hogsmeade, sorry,” he said with a shrug. “Have either of you ever found the room of requirement?”

“No,” said James with a groan, “and I’ve been looking for ages. I’ve probably walked past it a hundred time, I just don’t know how to make it show up or whatever.”

“Too bad,” said Albus, deciding to keep his information quiet. He liked having knowledge about the school that belonged just to him – well, him and Scorpius. 

James and Lily said their goodbyes, and Scorpius and Albus headed back down to their dormitory. Scorpius seemed mostly back to normal, chatting about the feast and keeping conversation. 

They were the first ones back to the dormitory. Albus busied himself putting away the candy he’d bought and throwing books into his bag for classes tomorrow, and Scorpius sat down to read. 

“Hey, Albus?” said Scorpius as Albus sat down. “Can we talk?”

“Yeah, of course,” said Albus, looking to his friend. Scorpius was looking at the floor.

“So. I’m, um, I’m sorry about everything that happened today.”

Albus frowned. “What?” 

“You know, the… the thing this morning, Lexie, being awkward, all that.”

Albus wasn’t sure he was following. “Lexie?”

“Er, yeah. Her asking about… you know.”

“Huh?” 

Scorpius rolled his eyes. “You’re so thick, Albus, you didn’t pick up on this? Lexie, um, she was – I mean, when she ran into us – I think she thought that we were, you know…”

“Together? Like  _ that _ ?” Albus finished, starting to catch on and feeling a blush rise to his face. “ _ Oh. _ I didn’t realize that was what she… oh.”

“I thought you felt awkward too,” Scorpius said, also blushing fiercely. “With the things Lexie said and what happened this morning and me acting weird.”

Albus ran a hand through his hair, not entirely sure what to say. 

“Albus, I just want you to know that my feelings for you are totally, one hundred percent friendly,” Scorpius said carefully. “I never want to make you uncomfortable, and I hate things being awkward between us. I thought maybe with what Lexie said and the way I acted this morning, you would assume that I… And I know you would never, ever feel that way about me, I mean, I couldn’t expect… But I don’t feel that way about you, of course not...” Scorpius trailed off. 

Albus felt very odd about this conversation. He had never considered that Scorpius might like him as more than a friend, and he was only considering it now because Scorpius had brought it up to clarify that he  _ didn’t  _ have romantic feelings for Albus. 

The door to the dormitory suddenly banged open, the other three boys bursting in loudly, completely oblivious to the conversation they’d just interrupted. 

“It’s fine, Scorpius,” Albus said, quickly and quietly. “I don’t care, and I’ve told you, you liking guys doesn’t change anything.”

Scorpius nodded, though something in his eyes still looked crushed. Albus felt weirdly down as well, even though, technically, they had just sorted everything out. He tried to shake the feeling as he slid into bed and turned to face Scorpius. 

“Friends?” Albus asked. 

“Always.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woop woop. Comments/kudos/feedback make my day, and I'm on tumblr @simon-snowman if you want to come hang out with me/make friends. Thanks so much to everyone for reading, commenting, subscribing, all that jazz! Y'all are the best :)


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey hey hey! Chapter 5, everyone :) Enjoy!
> 
> This one took a while to feel right, and I'm still not totally sure about it, so if ya have any thoughts I would absolutely love to hear them! Thank you so much to everyone reading and commenting, you guys are the best.

Scorpius wasn’t in the room when Albus woke up on Sunday morning after Halloween.

This was the first thing Albus registered, because it was so unusual. They almost always waited for each other before going down to breakfast, especially on weekends. 

Albus dressed quickly and hurried upstairs to the Great Hall, worry building up in his gut with every stair he climbed. Yesterday hadn’t even been a fight, and Albus thought they had sorted it out… though he couldn’t help remembering the crushed look in Scorpius’s eyes last night, and Albus still had no idea what that was about. 

Albus hurried into the Great Hall, scanning the Slytherin table for his friend. He spotted him sitting between two of their roommates, Drew and Peter. Albus approached carefully and sat down across the table from him. 

“Hi, Albus,” said Scorpius, his eyes following him across the Hall and quickly flicking away when Albus sat down. 

“Morning,” said Albus. Scorpius didn’t say anything back. Peter raised an eyebrow at Albus, and Albus shrugged. The fact that others picked up on their stiffness somehow made it more painful. 

The other boys picked up the conversation again, something about the Gryffindor quidditch captain getting caught sneaking in firewhiskey and being banned from an upcoming match. Albus listened along and tried to pitch in, but something about being on the other side of the table or missing the first half of the conversation or being on awkward terms with Scorpius made him feel out of the loop. 

Albus left the Great Hall alone, before Scorpius did. He knew his friend was watching him leave. He didn’t look back. 

They saw each other again in Arithmancy, and they took their usual seats next to each other, but they may as well have been a classroom apart for the amount they talked. It wasn’t more than a few words, just greetings and a few class-related questions and goodbyes.

It was all wrong. It was almost like last year, when they’d been forced apart, but now  Albus felt somehow responsible. This wasn’t someone else telling them they weren’t meant to be best friends; this was Scorpius and Albus not acting like best friends to each other. 

Lunch was another awkward hour. Albus went to the library, feeling upset and confused to see Scorpius in the Great Hall, but his friend had apparently had the same idea and was already at their usual table. Albus felt a pang in his chest – so Scorpius really was avoiding him, then. Without really deciding to, he found himself walking up to the table and sliding in next to Scorpius. 

“Albus,” he said in surprise, pushing his glasses up his nose. “Why aren’t you at lunch? I mean, I’m glad you’re here, but… um…” 

“I came to finish some homework,” said Albus, the lie coming easily to him. 

“Me too,” said Scorpius, just as casually, and, Albus suspected, also lying. 

So they both sat there for a moment, Albus searching his friend’s face and Scorpius intensely studying the bookshelves. 

“Scorpius?” Albus attempted, speaking quietly. “I’m… I thought we were okay.”

“We’re fine, Albus.”

“We sorted this out last night, didn’t we?” said Albus anxiously. “I know you don’t like me, you know, like that, and we talked about it, and we’re just friends, it’s-”

“Albus,” said Scorpius, his voice cracking. He looked so pained, like he’d been hit with a mild stunning spell. He stiffened and stood up, turning away from him. “I’m  _ fine. _ ”

Albus couldn’t bring himself to leave his friend, not when he was like this. He sat in his chair, watching Scorpius gaze the other way. He felt helpless. He felt lost. And at the same time, he felt like somewhere, he already knew the answer, like some tiny part of him knew he was only avoiding the truth at this point. 

 

Rose ambushed Albus on his way to Care of Magical Creatures on Friday, for once not surrounded by her devoted crew of friends. Albus had been spending time with her and James and Lily, and time alone. He’d never been so on top of his homework, and he’d rarely been more miserable. Scorpius was still being odd around him. They weren’t being hostile, just skirting around each other, like matching ends of two magnets. They were polite, and they would walk beside each other, but not  _ with  _ each other. And Albus knew Scorpius was hurting, and he didn’t know how to fix it. 

“So what’s up with you and Scorpius?” Rose asked, not bothering to offer a greeting. 

“What do you mean?” asked Albus. 

“You two are being all awkward,” she said. 

“It’s none of your business, Rose.”

“Did he tell you about him?”

Albus hesitated, walking a half step ahead of her so she couldn’t read his face. “Um… if you’re talking about what I think you are, then…”

“So he told you he’s into guys.”

Albus turned to look at her, slightly surprised. “How do you know?”

“Who do you think made him figure it out?” she said, sounding pleased with herself. “When we talked this summer, and I turned him down, I told him to to stop thinking with gender barriers when he was figuring out who he likes. I sort of guessed about him a while ago, and I thought I’d prompt him in the right direction.”

Albus gaped at her. “You knew? About him?”

“Not for sure, but I suspected.”

The two stopped walking at the spot where the trails for the forest and the Herbology greenhouses split. 

“And I told him that taking the entire student body into consideration instead of just one gender had worked for me, so…”

“Well, I guess I’m glad you helped him with- wait,  _ what _ ?”

“Better get to Herbology,” said Rose, smirking and turning around.

“Rose!” called Albus, watching her go. “Rose, you can’t just leave me with that!”

“I just did!” she called over her shoulder, still grinning. Albus huffed and watched her go before reluctantly heading to his class. 

 

At the end of his fifty minute class period, Albus was pretty sure he’d worked it out. He waited for Rose to come down the path from the greenhouses and started walking back to the castle with her. 

“Lexie,” he said simply. 

“Congratulations, you’ve learned how to read emotions,” Rose deadpanned. 

“She came up to me in Honeydukes and asked if we’d seen you, I completely forgot that you said you had a date, but… that was her, right?”

“Yup,” said Rose, trying to hide a smile. “Anyway, this isn’t about me. You and Scorpius,” she said, grabbing Albus’s arm and spinning him around to face her. “You two need to sort out whatever’s going on.”

“Rose, since when do you mess with my personal life?”

“Because when Scorpius feels like he can’t spend time with you, he tries to spend time with me, and I need to focus on other things. Like OWLs, Quidditch...”

“Snogging Lexie?”

Rose swatted Albus with her textbook. “I swear, any confidence you found went right to your head, you’ve gotten all sarcastic this year.”

“But really, he, um… he feels like he can’t spend time with me?” Albus asked, pushing his hair back. His stomach was in a knot. 

“We both know he’s acting a bit awkward around you. I won’t pry, but if you want to tell me why that is…” said Rose. 

“Don’t worry about it, Rose,” said Albus, trying to push past her. She blocked his path. 

“Albus, please just talk to him, sort it out. He needs you, and unless you’re about to shrug off your social awkwardness and make more friends, you need him too.”

She walked off briskly in the other direction, seemingly satisfied with her work. Albus was a bit offended that she thought Scorpius wasn’t enough for him – did she think he didn’t care about Scorpius? Did she think Albus wanted someone besides him to be his best friend? But, then again, that was just Rose, who probably couldn’t even imagine having only one friend.

Albus got to Charms and slid into his regular seat, watching the door. Scorpius came in a moment later, reading a book while he walked. 

“Hey,” said Albus as Scorpius took his seat. 

“Hi,” he said, looking up. 

“Ready for Charms?” asked Albus. Scorpius nodded and turned back to his book, and Albus felt his heart sink. Every time he saw Scorpius he hoped that things were back to normal, but there was still the underlying tension between them. Albus had been doing his best to ignore it, but now Rose’s voice was in the back of his mind nagging at him. She was right – whatever this was, they had to toughen up and work through it. 

“Hey, do you want to study tonight? Room of requirement?” asked Albus carefully. “We can work on the new Transfig spells you said you wanted to practice.”

Scorpius studied Albus’s face before answering. “Yeah, of course.”

Albus gave him a cautious smile, and after a small hesitation, Scorpius returned it. Albus felt a tiny sliver of hope that maybe, maybe, this was all it would take for everything to be normal again. 

 

That evening after dinner, Albus climbed the eight flights of stairs to the room of requirement (they really needed to find a hidden passage or something; these stairs were exhausting). Scorpius was already there, curled on the sofa with a book. The room looked the same as it always did – a sofa, two armchairs, two end tables, and bookshelves lining the walls. The familiar space, and seeing Scorpius there, seemed to calm his mood as soon as he walked in.

“Hey,” said Scorpius, looking up. 

“Hi,” said Albus, grinning. 

“How were classes?”

“Oh, you know, the usual,” said Albus, setting his bag down on the other end of the sofa and waiting a moment. “And I talked to Rose.”

“About what?” asked Scorpius, looking up again.

“Well, her and Lexie Thomas-Finnigan, for one thing,” said Albus, sitting across from his friend. “They’re dating!”

Scorpius couldn’t help but roll his eyes. “Yeah, I know.”

“And you didn’t tell me?” asked Albus incredulously. 

Scorpius laughed, but not cruelly. “I thought you’d figured it out!”

“How would I have known?”

“Well, she told us she had a date, and then Lexie came looking for her, and they had clearly arranged to meet…”

Albus sighed, defeated. “Merlin, I  _ am _ clueless, aren’t I?”

“Well, I certainly carry the brains in this friendship.”

Albus kicked his shin. This was good,  _ great.  _ This felt almost normal again. If not normal, at least okay.  

“What else did she say?” asked Scorpius. 

“That was pretty much it about her and Lexie,” said Albus, plucking up his courage, “but, um, she mentioned that she was worried about… us. She thinks you seem off or something.”

Scorpius bit his lip. “Really?”

“I thought we sorted out… you know, everything awkward?” said Albus anxiously. “And I know this week had been weird, and I want to move on.”

“No, we did settle it. I’m not upset with you at all, or anything like that. I know I’ve been… well, you know…  _ off  _ lately. But I’m… I’ve had some time and I’m feeling a bit better. It’s mostly just homework stress, classes, that sort of thing.”

Albus wasn’t so sure about that; Fifth year was certainly hard, but Scorpius had never let homework get to him before. In fact, it seemed to fuel him. And he doubted Scorpius had really waved off whatever had been bothering him all week. Albus let it go, though – Scorpius could talk to him when he was ready, and he really was acting more himself right now. 

“Okay. Just tell me if something’s wrong, all right?” Scorpius nodded. “So, speaking of schoolwork-”

“Yeah, you wanted to practice new Transfig stuff, right?” said Scorpius with relief, pulling out his notebook.

“Yeah, I need to practice vanishing,” said Albus. “I can do water, but we’re supposed to have flowers and stuff down by next week.”

“I know, I need to practice, too,” said Scorpius. He turned to the table, which just so happened to have an array of potted plants and flowers in vases today (that was another handy feature of the room – it was always perfect for whatever spells or charms they needed to practice).

“You try first,” said Albus. Scorpius lifted his wand to a daffodil in a glass vase and cleared his throat. 

_ “Evanesco.”  _

The flower seemed to melt away into nothing, the water in the vase rippling as it disappeared. 

“I knew it, you’ve got this in the bag, you don't need to be up here practicing,” said Albus enviously. Scorpius grinned. 

“I’m taking pity on a hopeless case,” he said. “Try vanishing the water to start.”

Albus turned to the water in the now flowerless vase and took a deep breath. 

_ “Evanesco.” _

Instead of vanishing the water, the glass vase disappeared, leaving the water to spill out over the table. 

“Damn,” Albus muttered. Scorpius was trying to hide his smile as he evaporated the water. 

“You know, glass is harder to vanish than water, it’s really sort of impressive that you did that.”

“Okay, I get it, you’re a genius. Help me out here,” said Albus. 

“I’ll try to help. Do it again, just so I can see.” Scorpius stood up and shifted to be just over Albus’s shoulder. Albus felt very aware of him, his presence right next to him somewhat comforting, though having someone watch him learn something always made Albus a bit nervous. He noticed how quiet the room was, and how it suddenly felt too hot. He ran a hand through his hair. 

“You have a good start,” said Scorpius encouragingly, for some reason hardly whispering. “You’re just not focusing enough on the water, and you’re holding your wand too loosely… here.”

Scorpius stepped forward and held out his wand, lining up his arm with Albus’s. 

“You want to point it more, it’s not a wave, more of a stabby thing – like this.”

Albus nodded and tried again, this time vanishing just the water. 

“Perfect!” Scorpius said, grinning. It seemed as though he’d been drifting closer this whole time. “Want to try the flower?”

“Sure.”

Albus raised his wand again, ready to try the spell, but suddenly Scorpius was reaching out again. He rested his hand lightly on top of Albus’s, curling his fingers over. 

“Like this,” he said. “Make sure you’re… holding it…. Um, hi.”

Albus had looked over his shoulder and locked eyes with Scorpius, slightly taken aback by the feeling of his hand covering his. It made his stomach flip and a bubble of nerves rise in his chest. This was closer than they’d been in a week. 

Scorpius bit his lip, frowning slightly, his grey eyes carefully searching Albus’s face. Albus kept looking back at him. 

“Albus?” Scorpius mouthed, barely audible, his eyes flicking to Albus’s lips and back up.

And suddenly Albus couldn’t take this anymore, this careful back-and-forth dance. He wasn’t entirely sure what he was doing, only that it seemed like the only thing that could possibly happen from here. 

He turned around and leaned closer to Scorpius, letting their lips meet. Softly, lightly, just for a second before pulling away again. And he was pretty sure he’d never thought about kissing Scorpius before, and his first instinct was that,  _ no,  _ he didn’t like Scorpius, not like this… but, suddenly, kissing Scorpius was all he could think about. 

Scorpius was standing inches in front of him, his grey eyes hopeful and nervous, barely breathing, and  _ god,  _ Albus wanted to kiss him, really kiss him, not just brush lips for an instant. He wanted to hold him and kiss him. 

So he did. 

He dropped his wand on the table and traced his fingers along Scorpius’s jaw, letting the other hand fall to his waist. Scorpius was meeting his eyes, almost smiling, tangling a hand in Albus’s hair. Albus wasn’t sure who started it, who closed the gap, but suddenly their lips were together, and Scorpius was kissing him softly and desperately, as if he’d always wanted to. 

And maybe he had. 

Albus was lost in this, lost in the feeling of Scorpius’s hands pulling him close, trailing down his arms and neck and shoulders, Scorpius’s breath hot against his lips and cheek and neck, his heart racing in his chest.

_ What are we doing?  _ Albus thought fleetingly. It was gone as soon as it came – he couldn’t think with Scorpius against him like this, pushing closer and sliding his tongue and teeth along Albus’s lips, leaving goosebumps everywhere his fingers touched. 

Both were breathing deeply when they finally broke apart, just far enough to catch their breath. 

“Albus,” said Scorpius after a moment, his hands still resting on Albus’s chest and behind his neck, “what exactly was that?”

“I think that’s called kissing.”

Scorpius let out a shaky laugh. “I thought you said… platonic and friends were all you wanted.”

“You said that too,” Albus pointed out. 

“I couldn’t lose you,” said Scorpius, tracing small circles on the back of Albus’s neck. “I couldn’t tell you and risk that, what if you’d left me?”

“Scorpius,” said Albus, breathing the name against his lips, feeling Scorpius relax into him, and Albus  _ loved  _ the effect that had. “Scorpius Malfoy, I would never, ever leave you. I… I like this.”

It was quiet for a moment, just breathing and glances and careful touches. 

“Albus?”

“Yeah, Scorpius?”

“I’m in love with you.”

Albus closed his eyes, letting the words sink in, memorizing the rise and fall of Scorpius’s voice. He liked that sound. It felt right hanging in the air between them, like the last piece of this puzzle.

Albus pushed closer to his friend again for a kiss, his heart swooping again. 

“So,” said Albus,”do we practice more Transfig, or do we collapse on the sofa and kiss and admire each other all night?”

“Well, as appealing as homework is, I suppose since it’s a Friday night…” said Scorpius. 

Albus laughed. “Wow, choosing me over homework. I’m honored.”

Scorpius stretched out on the sofa, pulling Albus on next to him. 

“Albus Potter,” he said, lacing their fingers together and leaning his head on Albus's shoulder, “I’d choose you over  _ anything _ .”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heck yeah, finally. If ya wanna come yell at me or maybe make friends, hit me up on tumblr @thefourthschuyler. Thanks as always for reading and leaving amazing feedback!


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y'all! Sorry for the slightly long wait, I was off the grid on a camping trip for a few days this weekend. Anyway, here's Chapter 6, and I'm back to posting every 2-3 days (I hope)! Thanks again for everyone's nice comments and things, they make me ridiculously happy :) Enjoy!

“Albus?”

Scorpius was still curled up to him in the room of requirement, resting his head on Albus’s chest while Albus slipped his fingers through his hair. 

“Yeah?”

“What time is it?”

Albus looked at his watch. “Uh, it’s nearly 10:30. Scorpius, we need to go back to the dormitory.”

Scorpius groaned, not moving. “We could just stay here.”

Albus laughed. “Scorpius, I’m not about to walk into our room tomorrow morning after being gone all night. Can you imagine the looks on everyone’s faces?”

“Point grudgingly taken,” grumbled Scorpius, standing up to stretch. Albus stood up beside him and took his hand, marveling at how easily it seemed to come to him, as though the idea had always been there and he was just now acting on it. This was just them. Natural, happy, at ease with each other. They walked to the door together, slinging their bags over their shoulders. 

“Speaking of everyone,” Scorpius said, “do we tell them anything?”

“Um… I guess that we were studying.”

“But, you know, about…”

“What do you want to tell them?” asked Albus, his hand on the doorknob.

“Nothing tonight,” said Scorpius, looking at the floor. 

“Okay,” said Albus, relieved. “We can sort all that out later.”

“Mm-hm,” said Scorpius. “I guess for now we just…?”

Albus hesitated. “Er… I mean, we’re still friends… right?”

“Best friends,” said Scorpius immediately. “But I guess we’re also…” he trailed off, raising his eyebrows. 

“I dunno,” said Albus with a shrug.

“Best friends who really like each other and have some things to sort out?”

“Yeah,” said Albus, grinning, “there we go.” Looking at Scorpius was making him want to kiss him again, and they really had to get back, so Albus tore his eyes away and opened the door. 

They had to be quiet walking the corridors, as they were technically supposed to have been back in Slytherin house a half hour ago. Albus was on edge, looking down every corridor for a teacher or other students, but the two managed to get down to the bottom floor and into the empty common room without being seen by anyone.

The boys hurried up the stairs and slid into their dormitory, where everyone else was still up and talking loudly.

“Hey, guys,” said Peter as they came in. 

“Hi,” said Albus, sitting down on his bed. Scorpius sat down next to him, leaving a few  inches between them. 

“You guys are missing the best game of exploding snap,” said Andrey, who was passing along a dice. “Where were you two, anyway?”

Albus glanced at Scorpius, who was blushing bright red and picking at a thread on his robes. 

“We were just studying in the library,” said Albus. 

“On a Friday night?” said Drew, making a face.

Albus felt heat rising to his own face. “You know, just getting ahead… trying to have a free weekend…”

The other boys quickly went back to their game, loud pops and sparks coming from their little circle on the floor. 

“I think I’ll just go to bed,” said Scorpius, standing up and lightly brushing Albus’s hand. 

“Me too,” said Albus. 

He was still awake long after all the others had gone to bed, gazing at the ceiling and replaying every kiss, every moment spent with Scorpius in his arms. It almost didn’t feel real, like he was remembering a dream. This was so odd, so new – but, then again, he thought, maybe it wasn’t. Albus had always wanted to be close to Scorpius, he’d always missed him when they were apart, he’d always felt like he was  _ more  _ when they were together. The kissing – the wanting to kiss –  _ that  _ was new. But not bad. And something told him that it wasn't new for Scorpius.

He rolled over in his bed, not surprised to see Scorpius looking back across at him. Albus let their eyes lock and didn’t look away, and neither did he. Somehow, much later, they both fell asleep. 

 

Scorpius was waiting for Albus when he woke up on Saturday, reading a book in bed. Albus closed his eyes again for a moment, the memories of the night before already replaying in his head again. 

“Hi,” said Scorpius, “you’re awake.”

“Yeah.” Albus smiled. Scorpius grinned back. 

“Shall we go to breakfast, then? I’m starving.”

“Okay, sounds good.”

“Cool,” said Scorpius, closing his book and crossing to his drawers to find robes. Both boys turned around to change, and Albus supposed that this was what they had always done, but he’d never exactly taken notice of it before. 

The walk up to the Great Hall was pleasantly quiet. Albus kept brushing Scorpius’s hand, and Scorpius seemed to be walking closer than he usually would. Albus tried to force his face into a more neutral expression with a bit less grinning like an idiot. He glanced sideways at Scorpius and he was clearly doing the same, which was honestly adorable. They headed to their usual seats at the Slytherin table. 

“So what should we do today?” asked Albus when they had both gotten food. 

“I’ve still got Transfig stuff to do,” said Scorpius through a bite of toast. 

“Isn’t that what you were doing last night?” asked Drew, frowning at them. 

Scorpius blushed bright red and Albus ran a hand through his hair. “We were just practising spells, we didn’t get to the essay,” he said. 

Albus watched nervously as their roommates exchanged glances and raised eyebrows before going back to their food. Scorpius was intensely studying his toast, carefully tearing off the crust. Albus grabbed a stray copy of the  _ Daily Prophet  _ for something to look at, flicking absentmindedly through the pages and glancing at the headlines –  _ New advances in dragon pox cure; Witch Weekly editor announces resignation; Department of Magical Transportation to clear floo passages... _

Scorpius stood up a few minutes later and grabbed his bag. “I really do need to write my Transfig essay,” he said to Albus. 

“Yeah, me too. Room of requirement?” 

“Um,” said Scorpius, turning red again, “maybe just the library. I feel like that could be… you know, distracting.”

Albus laughed a little, feeling the familiar nervous twist in his stomach. This was the first either of them had said anything about last night, and it felt like a sort of confirmation that it had actually happened. 

“Okay. Library, then,” said Albus. 

 

They didn’t talk about it all day Saturday, but it was there. It was there in the way Scorpius kept looking at Albus with his dorky smile, it was there in their brushed hands whenever they walked next to each other, it was there in the careful shoulder touches and longer-than-usual eye contact. And Albus still wasn’t entirely sure what it was, but he liked it. 

Rose cornered Albus in the owlery on Sunday afternoon. He thought he was alone, facing a window and tying his usual letter to his family onto a school owl.

“There you are!”

“Rose!” said Albus, jumping and whirling to look at her. The owl on his arm hooted indignantly at the sudden movement. “What’re you doing here?”

“I’ve been trying to get you alone all weekend!” she said. “I know you send mail on  Sunday nights.” 

“Stalker,” Albus muttered, lifting a school owl out the window. “Why’ve you been looking for me?”

“Scorpius,” she said, raising her eyebrows and smirking. “When did that happen?”

“Um. When did what happen?” 

“Don’t play dumb with me, I see your hand-holding and prolonged stares,” she said. “Tell me what happened.”

“We sorted out whatever was wrong,” said Albus evasively. 

“That doesn’t explain the hand-holding.”

“We don’t  _ hold hands,  _ it’s brushing fingers at best.”

“And the brushing-fingers-and-whatever-else is new,” she said, skirting around him and leaning against the door. “I want the story.”

“Are you blocking my way out?” asked Albus, half annoyed, mostly amused. He’d learned to appreciate Rose’s nature a bit more. 

“Yeah,” said Rose. 

Albus sighed, resigning himself to the fact that Rose was going to get this information. That was all right, really – he’d been feeling a need to tell someone and get it off his chest. 

“Okay, um, we haven’t really talked about it, but we’re… I guess we’re more than just friends now.”

“Finally!” said Rose, grinning. “So how’d it happen?”

“We, er… well, I’m not exactly sure what I should and shouldn’t tell you, but…”

“Did he kiss you?” she asked, giving Albus an intense stare. 

“Um. I think, technically, I kissed him.”

Rose nearly squealed, which was so un-Rose-like that Albus thought he should take a picture or something. 

“Merlin, it took you two long enough! I can’t believe you started it.”

Albus couldn’t stop himself from smiling. “How’d you know?”

“Well, it was obvious that Scorpius is head-over-heels for you, and you two are always together, saving the world or doing homework or something.”

Albus laughed. 

“So what’re you going to tell your mum and dad? Are you guys dating? Like, publically?”

“We haven’t exactly talked about the dating thing,” said Albus. 

“You should,” said Rose. "Talk about it, I mean."

“Yeah, I know. And mum and dad… I guess it depends on what Scorpius decides. I feel like if I told my parents it would spread to his dad, everyone’s so connected. Same goes for if he tells his dad.”

Rose nodded thoughtfully. “You know, that’s a surprising amount of calculation, coming from you.”

“I’m not in Slytherin for nothing,” said Albus, “calculation is my specialty.”

Rose opened the door and stepped out, and Albus following her. 

“So you’re going to talk things over with Scorpius?” she asked. 

“I guess I have to.”

“Yeah,” said Rose, “and you also have to tell me what you decide.”

“No, I don’t.”

“Well, as your loving cousin, you  _ should  _ tell me what you decide.”

Albus laughed. “I’ll check with Scorpius.”

“You two are going to be adorable,” she said, turning up the spiral staircase that lead upstairs. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow!”

“Night!” Albus called up behind her, heading down towards the dungeons. 

Rose was right – he needed to talk to Scorpius. 

 

Albus found Scorpius in the Common Room, cast in a cool green light and carefully vanishing food wrappers from nearby tables. 

“Leave it to you to combine homework and being helpful,” said Albus, brushing his hand over Scorpius’s shoulder. Scorpius turned around, beaming. 

“Well, you know what they say – kill two pixies with one stone. I’m lightening up the house-elf workload.”

“You know, you should chat with my aunt about house-elf rights, she’ll talk your ear off.”

Scorpius looked intrigued. “Does she work a lot with that?”

“Loads,” said Albus. “But anyway, I wanted to ask you – could we talk?”

Scorpius glanced around. “Yeah. Here?”

“Maybe somewhere a bit less crowded?” Albus suggested. “It’s about, you know. Us.”

“Yeah,” said Scorpius, nodding. “How about a walk?”

“Sure, let’s go.”

 

The sun had almost entirely set on the Hogwarts grounds, and the air was cold, the last breaths of Autumn on their way out. In a month, the sweeping lawns would likely be covered in snow, the lake frozen over.

“So,” said Scorpius as they reached the lake’s edge, “you wanted to talk.”

“Er, yeah,” said Albus. He’d been rehearsing in his head all the way down to the lake. “Let’s sit.”

The two sat under a tree by the lake, Scorpius leaning against the trunk and stretching out his legs. He looked up at Albus expectantly. Albus looked up into his grey, nervous eyes, taking a breath. 

“Scorpius, I suck at feelings, but- Hey, don’t laugh yet! Let me get through a bit first.” Scorpius forced down his smirk and nodded for Albus to continue. 

“As I was saying. I’m not totally sure how to put this… but I’ve been thinking a lot this weekend, and maybe I didn’t realize it before, but… I really like you.” Albus watched Scorpius’s eyes light up a bit at that, and he reached out to take his hand. “I like you as much more than a friend, and I… I think I want to be together as more than friends.”

Scorpius turned and took Albus’s other hand, and Albus’s heart jumped in his chest. 

“I’d love to be together as more than friends,” said Scorpius, beaming at Albus. 

“That’s…” Albus laughed, glancing down. “That’s a relief.”

“What, did you think I’d say no? You didn’t deduce from a solid evening of snogging and cuddling that I fancy you?”

“Well, I figured you liked me,” said Albus, running a hand through his hair, “but I wasn’t sure if you wanted to date or whatever. It’s OWL year and all, we’re busy.”

“Albus, if anyone can handle OWL year and having a boyfriend, it’s me, let’s be honest here,” said Scorpius, “and it’s not as though you weren’t distracting before, anyway.”

“I was distracting?”

“You have  _ no idea. _ Ever since Rose put the idea in my head last summer, honestly, I’ve been figuring it out… and I wondered sometimes, whether you… Since when have you fancied me?” he asked, stumbling through trains of thought. 

“Well, I realized it about five seconds before I kissed you.”

“You’re telling me you only had  _ five seconds  _ of agony?” said Scorpius, exasperated. “Here I was for  _ months,  _ pining after my best friend… that just isn’t fair.”

Albus laughed, tracing his thumb over the back of Scorpius’s hand. “Well, I think I’ve always liked you. I just didn’t totally realize it. I’ve always wanted to… to be near you, and with you, and all that. I just never noticed that that feeling also involved, you know. More than just friends.”

Scorpius grinned. “Well, thank Merlin you figured it out,” he said, He’d drawn himself very close to Albus, and now his eyes were glancing down to Albus’s lips, his breath was coming slower, and Albus felt his stomach swoop, tilting his head and leaning forward. He'd been thinking about this, hoping that this would happen again since Friday night, that their kissing wasn't some sort of fluke-

“HEY!” 

Albus and Scorpius both jumped back, Scorpius already starting to blush. Albus whirled around in alarm. 

“Lily?” he called, frowning at the figure hurrying towards them. 

“When did this happen?” called Lily ecstatically, breaking into a jog and flopping down on the grass in front of them. Albus glanced at Scorpius, not quite sure of what to say. 

“Since when do you two kiss?” Lily demanded. 

“It’s none of your business, Lils,” said Albus, trying to give her Ginny’s ‘stop-asking-questions’ look, but only Ginny could really pull that off. 

“Okay, but I’m here, and I’m asking, and I saw whatever just happened.”

“Whatever  _ almost  _ happened,” muttered Albus. 

“Huh?” asked Lily. 

“Lily,” said Scorpius kindly, “we’ll explain everything at some point – or, you know, some of the everything,” he amended, seeing Albus shoot him a look. 

“We’ll fill you in later if you don’t tell anyone,” said Albus quickly.

“Can I tell Hugo?” Lily asked. 

“No.”

“What about James?” 

“Definitely not,” said Albus quickly. “Not if you ever want to hear about this.”

Lily gave an exaggerated sigh. “Fine. I’m expecting a full story, though,” she said, standing and stalking away from them. 

“So that’s what it’s like to have siblings,” Scorpius muttered, waiting for her bright red hair to disappear through the castle doors. 

“Yeah, aren’t you sorry you’re missing it?” said Albus. 

“It’s sort of sweet,” said Scorpius, taking Albus’s hands again. “Bit rude of her to interrupt, though.”

Albus laughed and met Scorpius halfway, and his first thought was that first kisses were overrated, and second kisses deserved more appreciation. This was perfect, here in the twilight, with Scorpius pushing against him gently, his hands on Albus’s shoulders. _Perfect_. 

Albus broke the kiss after a moment, remembering something. 

“So Lily reminded me – we sort of need to decide what to tell people.”

“Oh. Right. Other people,” said Scorpius, still sitting with his arms around Albus, still close enough to be heard at a low whisper. 

“I don’t really want to tell people yet,” Albus admitted, not meeting Scorpius’s eyes. “Stuff spreads like wildfire here, and it could get back to our parents before I get a chance to tell them myself.”

“Okay,” said Scorpius slowly. “I get that.”

“But do _you_ want to be… public with this?”

Scorpius shrugged. “I wouldn’t mind people knowing. They already talk about us, one more thing really can’t add that much gossip. But, yeah, I want my dad to hear it from me.”

They were quiet for a moment. 

“I’m just sort of ready to be myself, you know?” said Scorpius. “I’ve been figuring this out and trying to hide it for two months and part of the summer, and it’s just… not fun. But I don't want the entire world to know just yet, either.”

“How’s this,” offered Albus, “we tell our parents at Christmas, and then next term, we don’t hide anything. We can be just like every other gross couple in the corridors.”

Scorpius laughed and thought a moment. “I think that’s a good plan.”

“I feel like I need time,” said Albus. “I’ve had about forty-eight hours to get used to being gay, and to figure out I fancy you, and to start dating you.”

“Okay,” said Scorpius, kissing Albus’s cheek. “Yeah. I understand.”

And Albus knew that Scorpius  _ did  _ understand. It wasn’t an empty affirmation that adults liked to throw around; it was Scorpius, and Scorpius always understood. They probably could’ve had this whole conversation in glances and raised eyebrows if they’d wanted to. 

“You’re okay with waiting?” said Albus, feeling a rush of affection for his now-boyfriend. 

“Of course,” said Scorpius. “And it’s not waiting anymore, really. Now we’re waiting together.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's probably 2-3 chapters left of this, and I'm also thinking about either throwing in my plot ideas and running with this or writing a more plot-y sequel. All that's still up in the air, but anyway, next chapter in a few days :) As always, comments and feedback make my day, and you can hit me up @thefourthschuyler on tumblr if you want to hyperventilate about Harry Potter with me!


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Huzzah, chapter 7! Thanks to everyone still reading, you guys are the best :) Enjoy!

Monday meant going back to classes, which meant being homework, which meant that Albus was seeing less of Scorpius. After everything that had happened over the weekend, Albus jumped at every opportunity he got to be with him; squeezing in with him at meals, staying up to talk in their dormitory, running to the library right after classes to claim a small table in the back for just the two of them. 

It was partly weird. Sometimes Albus would almost forget that he could do things like hold Scorpius’s hand or kiss him, and then he would be hit with the reality again in a rush. Aside from getting used to this new development, everything was mostly how it used to be – they still spent all their time together, they were still best friends – but now there was a new level to it all, and Albus felt like things were beginning to make a lot more sense.

Rose caught up to Albus again as he walked to Care of Magical Creatures on Wednesday. She was with Lexie, heading to Herbology.

“So?” she asked, without any greeting, as usual. “Did you and Scorpius talk?”

“Yeah, we did. I think we’re, like… together,” said Albus, glancing at Lexie. “But don’t tell anyone, we’re keeping it quiet for a while.”

“Probably a good idea,” said Rose. “But really, that’s great.”

“I thought you were already together,” said Lexie. 

“Al here was the only one thick enough to not see it,” said Rose, smirking at him. “Thank Merlin you two sorted it out. Have you decided what you’re going to tell your parents?”

“I’m telling them at Christmas,” said Albus, and as soon as the words were out of his mouth, he wished he could take them back. Saying it out loud to someone who would be there at Christmas made into a solid plan that he would be held to instead of a general idea that he could back out of. 

“You’re serious?” said Rose, surprised. “I thought you’d wait longer.”

Albus hesitated, but really, what was the use in taking it back now? “Yeah, I’m serious. It’ll be fine.”

“Good,” said Rose, beaming. “We’ve got to get to class, I’ll see you.”

Albus waved as the pair of girls turned around and walked towards the greenhouses,  hands clasped and swinging between them. No one gave them a second glance. As far as Albus knew, no one had ever given Lexie or Rose a hard time about their relationship, and they were always together, always happy.

_ The sooner I tell my family, the sooner me and Scorpius can have that,  _ Albus reminded himself. 

 

Apparently Rose wasn’t entirely satisfied with just talking to Albus. 

That evening, she dragged a chair over to their table at the library, setting down her bag  and pulling out books and quills before finally acknowledging either of them. 

“Hi, guys,” she said brightly, looking up into their confused and wary faces. “You don’t need to look so nervous, I just wanted to hang out.”

“Don’t you have quidditch?” asked Albus. 

“Not until eight, I’ve got half an hour left, and Lexie’s at the Hufflepuff practice right now.”

“What’s up?” asked Scorpius, sliding a stack of parchment over to make room for her. 

“Just homework and stuff. I’m being piled with it, this is ridiculous, honestly…”

“What’s this?” asked Albus, scanning one of Rose’s papers with different handwriting, large and loopy. Rose snatched it back. 

“It’s from James.”

“Does that say ‘room of requirement?’” asked Albus, frowning at the parchment. 

“Um… yeah,” she said, giving in. “It’s part of this thing we’re planning.”

“Is it another prank?” asked Scorpius, grinning.

“Just a small one. Small, but genius.”

“Does James know where the room of requirement is?” asked Albus. 

“No, but we’re starting to really look now. If we don’t find it before Christmas we’re going to try to get it out of one of our parents, I think Uncle George might tell-”

“We know where it is,” said Scorpius. Albus slapped him lightly on the arm. “Ouch, what was that for?”

“What?” said Rose, gaping at them. “You two know where it is?”

“Yeah,” said Albus grudgingly. “I wanted to let you look yourself, but thanks to Scorpius-”

“I was being a helpful friend!” Scorpius protested.

“Do you go there often?” asked Rose. 

“Yeah, a few times a week,” said Scorpius, and based on his slightly pink cheeks, Albus was pretty sure they were both thinking of the last time they were there. 

“What on earth do you two do in the – actually, wait. Do I want to know?” Rose asked, raising an eyebrow. 

“We  _ study, _ ” yelped Albus quickly, Scorpius blushing scarlet now. “Merlin, Rose…”

She held up her hands defensively. “Okay, okay! So since you know the room so well, do you want to show me?”

“What’s in it for us?” asked Albus quickly. 

“Um… appreciation and support from your favorite cousin?”

“You’re not my cousin,” Scorpius pointed out.

"You're not my favorite," said Albus.

“I dunno, I didn’t think up any bargains!” said Rose. “How hard would it be to just tell me where it is?”

“And not even get let in on the prank? I don’t think so,” said Albus.

“You want to help me and James?” asked Rose, frowning. “I didn’t think that was one of your interests.”

Albus glanced at Scorpius. This was the closest he’d come to being let in on exciting plans at Hogwarts, and so what if he wasn’t usually one for prank-planning? Albus raised his eyebrows at his boyfriend.  _ You in?  _ Scorpius shrugged. 

“If it’s not hurting anyone and won’t get us sent back in time… I’ll help,” he said. 

“Me too,” said Albus, “if we’re getting something out of it.”

Rose sighed, thinking. “I’ll talk to James. Knowing about the room could take  _ months  _ off the plan, and James wants time to plan his real prank…”

“This isn’t even his biggest one?” asked Albus. “He’s already done the swamp on the third floor back in September, he wants to do two more?”

Every year, the seventh years managed to flood some section of the school with murky water and plant life. His cousin Fred had started it in his seventh year, borrowing the idea from a story Uncle George told about him and his brother flooding a corridor. The teachers generally let it happen, and no one would try too hard to vanish it for a few days. It seemed they almost appreciated the tradition.

“The swamp is nothing, just a tradition,” said Rose. “He wants to pull some really creative ones for his seventh year.”

“It’s sort of impressive how dedicated he is to this,” said Scorpius. 

“Isn’t it?” said Rose. “Anyway, I’ll tell him that you too can help us.”

“ _ Might  _ help you,” Albus corrected. 

“Right.” She stood up, shoving her books into her bag. “I’ve got to get ready for practice, I’ll see you two lovebirds around.”

Albus shook his head as she walked away, smiling down at the table. 

“She’s mental.”

“I know, I can’t believe I thought I wanted to date her,” said Scorpius, reaching out and taking Albus’s free hand. “Not that she’s awful, she’s a decent friend, but, you know…”

Albus squeezed Scorpius’s hand, smiling up at him. “But what?”

“But it was always you, not her.”

Albus studied Scorpius’s hand. “You’re ridiculously sappy, did you know that?”

“And you love it,” said Scorpius. 

“You know, I guess I do.”

 

It was another week before Albus heard anything more about James’s plan. Albus and Scorpius were heading to breakfast. Scorpius was going on about his Potions project, and Albus listened quietly to his excited speech. Not that he was all that interested in Potions, but he  _ was  _ pretty interested in watching Scorpius be excited. It was adorable, really.

As they walked towards the Great Hall, Albus glanced around the room and realized that James was crossing towards him. That was odd – usually James kept to the Gryffindor table. Albus had expected to just hear from Rose again.

“Hey, little bro,” he said, catching up to the two of them in the doorway. “How goes fifth year?”

“Fine,” said Albus warily. 

“Fantastic. What’s up, Scorpius?”

“Pretty good. I mean, uh, not much,” said Scorpius hastily, raising his eyebrows at Albus in a  _ why is your much-cooler seventh year brother talking to me?  _ kind of way. Albus shrugged. 

“What’s up, James?” Albus asked. 

“Well,” said James, stepping out of the doorway and into the corridor and leaning against a wall, “I heard that you two might be interested in planning the prank of the term.”

“And you’re okay with involving us?” asked Albus carefully. 

“I’m pretty sure that you two are the only ones who know how to get into the room of requirement,” said James, “and anyway, it’s about time you joined the family tradition of launching Hogwarts into mayhem.”

“I think we did a pretty good job of that last year,” said Scorpius.

“Well, controlled mayhem this time,” said James.

“What do you need the room of requirement for?” asked Albus.

James grinned and winked. “The prank.”

“No duh. What’s the prank?”

“I’ll tell you if you show me the room.”

“Could you do it without us?” asked Scorpius curiously.

“See, I’ve thought it out, and I could do that, but it still involves you two going into the room, and I would also need a detention with McGonagall. It’d be a lot quicker for you to just tell me.”

“What’s in it for us?” asked Albus. "Rose said she's think of some kind of trade-off."

“You get to be in on the project!” said James, as though it were the biggest possible honor. “It’ll be us three and Rose, and maybe Rose’s girlfriend, if Rose can convince her to come along.”

“That’s your grand compromise?” said Albus. 

“Listen, this project is going to be fantastic,” James said. “We’ll have so much fun with it.”

“What  _ is  _ the project?” asked Scorpius. 

James glanced around, lead them briskly into a side corridor, and explained the plan. 

 

“You’ve got to hand it to him,” said Albus as he and Scorpius sat working in the library that night, “that plan is brilliant.”

“It’s a bit stupid,” said Scorpius, “but if it works it would be incredible.”

“It's not the iconic Weasley firework escape, but it's pretty fantastic,” agreed Albus. “I can’t believe he’s asking us to help.”

“He still hasn’t really come up with anything to give us in return,” said Scorpius.

“But just being in on it,” said Albus. “That’s almost enough.”

“Albus, I’m not getting in that much trouble without a guaranteed good thing coming out of it.”

“There’s something Uncle George always says,” said Albus, “about pranks. He says that the best ones are so well done that people are too impressed to be angry.”

“Maybe we should  _ ask  _ for something in return,” suggested Scorpius. “Something specific.”

“Like what?”

“Like they don’t tell anyone that we were involved,” said Scorpius.

“I dunno,” said Albus slowly. “Isn’t half the fun getting to put our names to it?”

Scorpius sighed. “Remember last time we tried to get involved in someone else’s business in order to make names for ourselves?”

Albus’s face fell. “Scorpius, this is nothing like that.”

“No, I know, you’re right,” said Scorpius quickly, “but this time we can choose who knows and who doesn’t. We let our friends know that we helped, but no one tells teachers, no one tells our parents. James and Rose cover for us.”

“That’s not bad,” said Albus, considering this idea.

“And,” Scorpius added, “when half your family comes home with detentions already lined up for next term-”

“I’ll look like an angel child,” said Albus, smiling slowly. “Which means-”

“You telling them you’re gay and dating a Malfoy might be smaller news, in relation to all of that.”

Albus grinned. “Okay, that’s good. So we help James, but he doesn’t tell anyone we’re involved?”

“Exactly. And no one will suspect us, because we’re never in on these things.”

“Brilliant,” said Albus. They worked in silence for a few moments. 

“It’s nice to be included, isn’t it?” asked Albus quietly. 

“It really is,” said Scorpius, a mischievous glint in his eye. “And I think we can have some fun with this.”

 

Albus found James the next day at breakfast.

“Okay,” he began, “we’ll help you on one condition.”

“Perfect!” said James. “What’s that?”

“You don’t tell anyone that me and Scorpius had anything to do with this. No teachers, no mum and dad. And you have to cover for us if anyone asks, and we're allowed to throw you under the bus if anyone suspects us.”

“That’s nothing, Al!” said James. “You’ve got a deal. Tell me where it is!”

“Seventh floor,” he said in a low voice. “Across from that tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy. You walk past the wall three times and think about what you need, and make it really, really exact.”

James’s face split into a grin. “You’re the best, little bro,” he said, ruffling Albus’s hair. “You guys can help out, I'll let you know what we need.  Just tell your boyfriend not to tell anyone about this.”

Albus stepped away from James, blushing. “My… my… what, Scorpius? We’re not… um…”

James was smirking, entirely unconvinced by anything Albus was saying. Albus gave up with a sigh. 

“How did you know?”

“He’s been pining over you for years, Al,” said James, rolling his eyes. “And I see you sneaking glances at him.”

“No way are you that observant,” said Albus doubtfully. 

“Lily may have also confirmed that you guys are together.”

Albus spun around, scanning the table for his sister. “I swear I’m going to murder her.”

“That may not be the best course of action,” said James casually. “Besides, she didn’t want to tell me at first, but she was obviously hiding something and I said I’d let her in on the prank if she told me.”

“You’re letting  _ Lily  _ help?!?”

“Not letting her help,” said James quickly, “I just told her about the plan.”

“In exchange for information on my love life.”

“Sounds about right.”

“Honestly, I can’t believe the whole lot of us aren’t in Slytherin,” Albus muttered. 

“They take the good-looking ones for Gryffindor,” said James. “Get back to your table, I see your boyfriend’s shown up.”

Albus shot his brother one last glare before crossing the hall to sit with Scorpius.

“You told him where the room is?” asked Scorpius. 

“Yeah, and he agreed not to tell anyone that we're helping. Also, he knows about us.”

Scorpius groaned. “Of course. I guess he was going to find out by the winter holiday, anyway.”

“True,” said Albus, his stomach twisting like it did whenever he thought of telling his family about him, about Scorpius. He’d been trying to avoid thinking about it, but it was only a few weeks until break started, and then he would actually need a plan. 

“Hey,” said Scorpius, resting a hand on Albus’s knee under the table. “Don’t worry about it. Your family’s fantastic, they’ll understand.”

“No, I know,” said Albus quietly, “I just… it’s awkward, you know? I never really talk about my love life with any of them, it feels weird to turn it into an announcement.”

“So don’t make it an announcement,” said Scorpius. “Wait for them to ask if you’re dating anyone, tell them privately. No one else needs to know.”

“Everything’s an announcement in my family,” said Albus, rolling his eyes. “My dad has to talk to Uncle Ron about everything, and Uncle Ron talks to Hermione and George, and my siblings tell my cousins, and suddenly half the wizarding world is hearing about my love life.”

Scorpius traced Albus’s knee carefully, pressing their arms a bit closer together. “It’ll be okay. They’ll be okay about this. And after you tell them, and I tell my dad, we can be… you know. An actual couple.”

“I know,” said Albus, smiling. That thought made the terrifying idea of revealing his love life to his entire family a bit more bearable. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The boys are back to getting in trouble. Next up, James's mystery prank. 
> 
> Thanks for reading, hope you liked it! Leaving comments and kudos makes me the happiest writer alive, and if ya want to fangirl over Harry Potter with me, hmu on tumblr @thefourthschuyler :)


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And chapter 8 is finally done! It took me a while to finish, but it's longer than usual, so I hope that makes up for it. Enjoy!!!

Albus had assumed that being in on James’s prank planning would mean a lot more sneaking around in the middle of the night and a lot less finding books in the library. James would find them in there and ask them to help look things up, things he needed in preparation for his end-of-term prank. It was actually a bit of a relief – no one would get in trouble for researching. In fact, Albus and Scorpius weren’t involved in anything that could get them in trouble until the week before the term ended. 

James found them with Rose at lunch on the Sunday before their last week. 

“Hey, you lot,” he said, glancing both ways and grinning conspiratorially. “Who wants to come see the room of requirement today?”

“Is everything ready?” asked Rose eagerly. 

“Just about,” said James. “It’s all set up and coming along, we just need to make the last plans and give it a few more days, maybe do it the last day of term. Friday.”

“We should do it on Thursday,” Albus suggested quickly. “That way we get to see more of the aftermath, the teachers being confused and cleaning up and everything. And I think some people are going home for the holiday on Friday, we can’t have them missing it.”

“True, true,” said James, clapping Albus on the shoulder. “It would be a pity for anyone to miss out. Thursday it is, then.”

“So can we come see it?” asked Scorpius. 

“Yeah,” said James, “come in an hour.”

Scorpius and Albus left the Great Hall together. 

“So some students are leaving on Friday?” Scorpius asked skeptically. 

“Er, maybe,” said Albus, grinning. “It’s completely possible.”

“But you made it up.”

“Yep,” admitted Albus. “If they do it on Friday that’s barely any time for them to get in trouble, and if they’re not in trouble, there’s nothing for my parents to talk about besides… you know.”

“Clever,” said Scorpius. “And I thought I was the smart one.”

“You are,” said Albus, elbowing him lightly. “I’m the sneaky one.”

“We make a good team,” said Scorpius as they reached their room, closing the door behind them. 

“Uh-huh.”

Scorpius set down his bag and sat on Albus’s bed. “Speaking of your parents… have you decided what you’re going to say?”

Albus sighed and sat down in front of Scorpius, taking his hand and studying it. 

“Sort of. I’m just going to wait for them to ask if I’m dating anyone, or if you’re dating anyone, or something like that, and I’ll just… tell them.”

“What if they don’t ask?” said Scorpius. He reached up and pushed a strand of messy hair out of Albus’s face. 

“I dunno,” said Albus with a shrug. “They probably will.”

They sat in silence for a moment. 

“I’ll miss you over break,” said Scorpius finally. 

“Yeah. Maybe we can hang out after Christmas,” Albus said hopefully. Scorpius nodded. 

“What are you going to tell your dad?” asked Albus.

“I guess I’ll just say it,” said Scorpius. “He won’t ask, he never does. I’ll just have to tell him at some point. If you come up, I’ll say it.”

Albus nodded and moved closer so that they were sitting side by side, facing each other. He put a hand cautiously on Scorpius’s shoulder. Scorpius grinned and pulled Albus into a sudden, tight hug. 

“Woah, woah,” said Albus, laughing, “I’d like to keep all my ribs.”

“Sure thing,” said Scorpius, loosening his grip, but pulling Albus down onto the bed so they were lying next to each other. He kept his arms around Albus. 

“Everything’ll work out,” said Scorpius, threading his hand back into Albus’s hair. 

“I hope you’re right.”

“Even if our parents are upset about it, what can they do? We come back to school, they’re not here.”

“And I think my dad learned his lesson about trying to keep us apart,” said Albus, closing his eyes and leaning into Scorpius’s chest. He was warm, and his shirt felt soft, and he smelled nice – maybe like spring, or coconut. He was slipping his fingers slowly through Albus’s hair, and Albus felt like he could just go to sleep, and he would be safe and everything but Scorpius would evaporate. 

“You have soft hair,” Scorpius whispered, “even if it does look like a rat tried to build a nest in it.”

“Wow, thanks,” said Albus sarcastically. 

“You’re very welcome.”

“You’re such a nerd.”

Scorpius laughed, his chest rising and falling. He ducked down and pressed his lips gently to Albus’s forehead, warm and soft. Albus let himself relax into it, let himself just enjoy feeling happy in his boyfriend’s arms. All at once he was struck with the impossibility of this –  _ Scorpius Malfoy,  _ one of the smartest people in school, definitely one of the cutest, was with  _ him.  _ Even though his grades weren’t what he quite wanted, even though he was probably the least impressive member of the Potter-Granger-Weasley family to come to Hogwarts in three generations, Scorpius (a  _ Malfoy _ ) was lying here with him, laughing at something he’d said and holding him close. 

“I’m glad we’re more than friends,” whispered Albus into Scorpius’s chest.

“Me too,” said Scorpius. “Very glad.”

“I think this is what we were missing, you know?” said Albus. “I always wanted to be closer to you, I just… this didn’t occur to me.”

“Maybe if you were a bit less thick, we could’ve been doing this for months,” said Scorpius jokingly. 

“We’ll just have to make up for it.”

“Or,” said Scorpius, as if he’d had a brilliant idea, “we could go  _ back in time  _ and-”

“No,” said Albus, laughing. “Although I’m glad we’re able to joke about that, even though it was... terrible.”

“Me too,” said Scorpius. "I think we could joke about anything. It helps." They sat in silence for a few minutes, both of them unaware of anything except the other. 

“Hey, what time is it?” mumbled Albus, sitting up and checking his watch. “Ugh, we’ve got to go meet James and Rose.”

Scorpius groaned and reached up for Albus, trying to pull him down again.

“Come on, you lazy dork,” said Albus, pulling him up. “The others are probably coming back from lunch soon, anyway.”

Scorpius sighed and stood up, right in front of Albus. He glanced back to the door, then pulled Albus in by the shoulders and kissed him quickly and sofly. 

“Okay,” he said, pulling back, “now we can leave.”

Albus laughed and lead the way out of the dormitories, taking Scorpius by the hand. 

 

Rose was standing with Lexie along the stretch of wall that concealed the room of requirement, waiting for them. 

“So you decided to help?” asked Albus, turning to Lexie. 

“Help keep you all in check,” she said, grinning. “Rose was persuasive. What’s she doing?”

Albus watched her pace back and forth, muttering to herself. “Asking the door to open for us.”

“That’s some cool magic,” said Lexie in awe, watching the door appear in the wall.

“You three ready?” asked Rose, approaching them. “James is in already, he told the room to open for us.”

“Yeah, let’s go,” said Albus eagerly. 

“Er…” said Scorpius, putting a hand on Albus’s shoulder to stop him, “it is  _ safe,  _ isn’t it?”

“Of course,” said Rose, rolling her eyes. “Come on.”

Albus followed Rose into the room, not quite knowing what to expect. The space looked very small at first – just a table and a few chairs and books on a maroon rug, complete with low lighting – but Albus quickly realized that the room stretched further, and the rest of it was concealed behind a black curtain.

“Where’s James?” he asked Rose. 

“Back there,” she said, waving to the curtain. “James!” she yelled. 

“One sec!” came his voice. In a moment they heard footsteps, and James was coming out from the edge of the curtain, holding an empty bucket. 

“Hello, team!” he said, beaming at them. “Ready to wreak havoc?”

“Absolutely,” said Rose. “Shall we get planning?”

“Can we see it first?” asked Lexie. “Back there?”

“Right you are,” said James, heading to the curtain. “It’s going fantastically, if I do say so myself.”

Scorpius shot Albus a nervous look, which Albus answered with a shrug. He followed James and Rose behind the curtain. It was even darker back here, with just enough light to see. They were standing with the wall on one side and a sort of fence on the other side. It appeared to be a large cage, about three meters on each side and a bit shorter than Albus. 

“Here we go,” said James, flipping a switch that flooded the room with low lighting. 

Behind the wire were dozens and dozens of small Cornish pixies. 

“How many are there?” asked Lexie in amazement, crouching to look through the cage.

“About four hundred fifty,” James answered. “We’ll probably have another fifty by Thursday, they breed ridiculously fast.”

Albus gaped at the enclosure, watching the bright blue pixies flit around the cage. They were starting to flock to the spot where he and the others were standing, squinting and jeering at them from behind the bars. The cage had a few heaps of straw and boxes here and there, and more and more pixies kept flying out of them. 

“Let’s go out,” said James, turning out the light. “We don’t want to get them too riled up. They think they're getting food whenever the light goes on.”

The group hurried to the other side of the curtain and gathered around the table. 

“Four hundred fifty!” exclaimed Rose. “How many did you start with?”

“About a hundred,” said James. “Caught about half in the forest, and I bought the rest off foreigners in Hogsmeade.”

“Who on earth was willing to sell Cornish pixies to a seventeen-year-old?” asked Rose. 

“They didn’t know I was seventeen,” said James. “And no one really wants to keep pixies, they’re a nuisance. I said I was doing a research project and then setting them free in the forest.”

“People believed that?” asked Scorpius. 

“One of the guys was French and the other was Chinese, they didn’t speak much English.”

“So you’ve been letting the pixies hang out and breed,” said Albus, “and on Thursday…”

“We set them free to roam the school,” said James with a grin. “And that’s the part we have to plan.”

He shuffled through papers on the table and came up with a giant map of Hogwarts and a pen. 

“So,” he said, “here’s the idea. This room can open other doors that lead to other places in the castle. We ask for about four doors that go to different places, we unlock the cage and turn on all the lights. And the pixies send the castle into a frenzy.”

“How do you know they’ll leave the cage?” asked Lexie. 

“They’re being kept in a small, dark space, and they usually live in really big areas,” said Albus. “They’ll flip out as soon as their environment changes and fly out.”

Everyone in the group turned to Albus, with looks that ranged from surprised to impressed.

“I paid attention in Care of Magical Creatures,” he said, grinning. 

“Well, as Albus so accurately explained,” said James, “they’re incredibly high-energy creatures, and they’ve spent the last three weeks in a small, dark space. They’ll go straight for the noise and people.”

“It’s not hurting them, is it?” asked Scorpius anxiously. “The small space and everything?”

“They’re perfectly fine, probably just antsy,” said Albus. 

“And that’s what we need,” said James. “So the next step is to pick out targets.”

The group spent the next hour drafting a schedule and scribbling on the map. In the end, they picked four well-travelled spots for doors, and settled on releasing the pixies at the end of the lunch period, right when everyone would be in the corridors. James tacked the map and schedule on the wall when they were finished.

“Okay,” he said as they stood up, “no one come back here before Thursday, we don’t need anyone seeing a flood of people going in and out. I’ll take care of feeding them.” 

“Erm… what  _ do  _ they eat?” asked Scorpius. 

“Fruits and nuts, and also small insects,” said Albus. 

“Oh good,” said Scorpius, “I was worried it was human flesh or something.”

“As exciting as that would be,” said James, glancing out the door to make sure no one would see them come out, “I don’t think I could find human flesh in the Hogwarts kitchen. And I also prefer to keep prank-related death tolls fairly low.”

“That’s a bit of a relief,” said Scorpius. 

“Seconded,” said Lexie. 

“It’ll go off fine,” said Rose, grabbing Lexie’s hand and tugging her the other way. “We’ve got a foolproof plan. We’re going to the library, we’ll see you guys later!”

The other three said goodbye and started walking towards the other staircase. Albus had to admit, he was a little excited for this – being included was nice, and he was able to actually contribute. 

“You excited?” he asked Scorpius as they split off from James.

“Not really.”

“Oh, come on,” said Albus, poking him in the side. “Not even a little?”

“Okay, a little. A little of a lot. Half of a lot.”

Albus grinned. “That’s the spirit.”

 

The week rushed by unbelievably fast. It felt like no time at all had passed before Scorpius was shaking Albus awake on Thursday morning.

“Albus! Al! Albus Severus Potter!” he hissed, punctuating each word with a shake. 

“I’m up, I’m up!” whispered Albus, rubbing his eyes. “Merlin, Scorpius, what time is it?”

“Six fifty-eight.”

“Is there a reason I’m being violently woke up at six fifty-eight?”

“Violently  _ awakened _ ,” Scorpius corrected. “And today’s prank day!”

“And if I’m remembering right, we don’t have to do anything until lunch.”

“Yeah, but I couldn’t sleep,” Scorpius whispered, sitting on Albus’s bed. Albus laughed softly and sat up, trying to smooth down his hair. 

“Want to go to breakfast?”

“Yeah, I’m starving,” said Scorpius, jumping up and tugging Albus by the hand. 

“Okay, okay, I’m coming,” Albus grumbled, following Scorpius out. 

There were only a couple of other people in the Great Hall, cramming in last minute homework assignments before end-of-term deadlines, looking like they’d pulled all-nighters. 

“If everything goes well, no teacher will care that these assignments are half-done,” Albus muttered, grinning. 

“I did all mine anyway,” said Scorpius.

“Of course you did.”

The morning seemed to drag on, and Albus was caught up in a sort of nervous excitement. Everything was normal now, but in a few short hours, the school would be thrown into (hopefully somewhat controlled) chaos. Scorpius was catching his eye and smirking all morning, revelling in being in on a secret. Albus thought it was adorable, but Rose stopped them in the halls and told him to look “Less like you know something, since you’re the ones who wanted to make sure you didn’t get in trouble.” He and Scorpius hurried through lunch and left early, telling everyone they were going to the library to finish up last assignments. 

James was already in the room, waiting for them. 

“Hello, hello, hello!” he greeted, a mischievous smile on his face. 

“Hi,” said Albus, looking around. “You got the doors working?”

“Yup,” he said proudly, “They’re all here. They come out behind tapestries, mostly.”

Rose and Lexie slipped into the room, Rose grinning and Lexie looking nervous. 

“Are we ready to go?” asked Rose.

“Yup. Shall we get started?” asked James. 

The group followed him behind the curtain. 

“Open the doors,” James instructed. Albus rested his hand carefully on what looked like an old brass doorknob and pulled the door in. Behind it was the back of a tapestry. Albus pushed it back a bit and looked through – this one lead to the spot where the stairs to the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw towers split, a busy place after lunch with students running up to dormitories. 

Albus glanced around and saw four of the five doors standing open, all of them concealed on the other side by tapestries. 

“Everyone ready?” asked James. The group nodded. “Okay, come on. This door takes us into the broom closet by the Great Hall,” he said, pointing at the last, unopened door. “Go back to your tables, pretend you know nothing, and leave when you hear mayhem. Get to your seats quick, though, there’s a door that’ll let the pixies out right down the corridor.”

“Don’t you think it’ll be odd to have five people spilling out of a broom closet about a second before pixies pour into the castle?” asked Lexie. 

“We’ll be fine,” said James. 

“Everyone’s at lunch, no one’ll see anything,” Rose said reassuringly. “Let’s move, we’re running short on time.”

James ushered everyone into the small closet. Albus turned to watch him. He pulled the cord to turn on the light, which made the pixies pour out of their hiding spaces, expecting to be fed. James looked around to make sure the doors were open, aimed his wand carefully at the bolt on the cage, and whispered, “ _ alohomora _ .” 

The bolt slid, and the door swung open gently – and pixies started flooding out.  

“Go go go go go,” James hissed, slamming their door and pushing them out to the other side of the closet. The group spilled into the corridor, dusting off their robes and shooting each other excited looks. 

“What in the name of Dumbledore?”

Albus spun around, the grin instantly sliding off his face. Professor McGonagall was eyeing them with a look of confused suspicion. Scorpius was slowly slinking back behind Albus, as if hoping to be shielded. Albus held his breath, waiting for a lecture, points docked, endless detentions…

To his astonishment, the professor just sighed and turned away. 

“I didn’t see anything,” she said over her shoulder, “but I'm guessing I'll be seeing you later. I hope this doesn't hold up my holiday.”

Albus gaped at James in amazement. 

“Did she just-”

“Great Hall now, analyzing McGonagall's thought process later,” he said, rushing around the corner and into the hall. Albus followed him, hardly believing their luck. He slid into his usual seat at the Slytherin table next to Scorpius. 

“Hey, guys,” said Peter, looking up. “Thought you’d gone to the library.”

“Changed my mind,” said Albus with a shrug. 

“Er… how long were we gone?” asked Scorpius, trying and failing to sound nonchalant. 

“Maybe five minutes?” guessed Peter. “Or a little more.”

Albus and Scorpius grinned at each other, barely keeping in their adrenaline-filled laughter. Suddenly, Scorpius’s eyes widened, and he nodded at the doorway.

“First ones,” he said. 

Albus turned around, and sure enough, a cloud of eight-inch-tall blue pixies were rushing into the room. Before many people had even noticed them, they had swooped over the staff table, turning over plates, emptying a bowl of soup on the Potions teacher’s head while she wasn’t looking, knocking glasses to the floor. Students started standing up, craning their heads towards the commotion. There were maybe seventy pixies in this group, but they were causing a surprising amount of chaos. After the initial shock, students started running for the doors, taking their things and covering their heads. Older students herded the younger ones out, yelling, "Cornish pixies! Clear the way!"

Albus and Scorpius joined the rush for the exit, laughing now. The Potions professor had wiped the soup out of her eyes, but her hair was still dripping; one third-year Ravenclaw girl was being picked up by the shoulders and flown over everyone’s heads; the pixies had expertly tied the Arithmancy professor’s shoelaces to the Care of Magical Creature professor’s shoelaces, and they'd fallen in an awkward pile. Food was being flung into students, and almost everyone had a smear of mashed potatoes or a blob of jelly stuck somewhere. 

Albus and Scorpius kept running until they reached a courtyard, stopping to catch their breath. 

“Did you see Professor Albright?!” exclaimed Albus. “Tomato soup all over her robes…”

“And they wound up Annabelle Gordon in those Christmas lights-”

“The look on everyone’s faces-”

They both dissolved into laughter, unable to control themselves anymore. All the risks and adrenaline from the morning were finally paying off. 

“Come on,” said Scorpius, catching his breath, “let’s go to class. Oh, this’ll be fantastic…”

The two of them hurried to Charms. As soon as Albus walked in, everyone in the room yelled, “Close the door! Close it, close it!”

About half the class had shown up, with no sign of the professor, and everyone was shouting about the pixies. The students were trying to force their way to the door to look out the small window, watching paintings, suits of armor, and the occasional student being flown through by the pixies. Everyone who arrived was waved in quickly, and the door was slammed again.

The professor showed up with five minutes left of class, looking incredibly frazzled, and also (somehow) soaking wet. 

“Quiet, quiet!” she shouted. “Everyone, er… have a nice holiday, leave your homework on my desk! Class dismissed! But  _ be careful!” _

The students rushed out the door. The mayhem was still in full swing, with pixies flying everywhere. Students and professors kept running by, some of them freezing the pixies, but most of them just charging ahead. Scorpius cast a shield charm over him and Albus so they could safely observe the chaos. 

Classes were the same all afternoon, with teachers and students coming in and out, and more and more unbelievable stories being passed around. Albus and Scorpius kept to the background, usually laughing uncontrollably and speculating over what the teachers would try.

"They'll know that the best thing is to freeze them," said Albus.

"Can you stun them?" asked Scorpius.

"Nope, it doesn't work. They just go crazy."

"More crazy than they are already?"

"Much more."

"I hope someone tries to stun them," said Scorpius with a smirk. 

"See, I knew you'd get into the troublemaking spirit," said Albus.

"Yeah, okay, it's kind of funny. And it's better than being on the other end of this."  


This was definitely true – Albus couldn't imagine being caught by surprise with this prank.

By the time they left their last class, most of the pixies had been frozen and caught, but Albus still saw about five flitting through the corridors. Even down in the basement, the walls were splattered with food, paintings were on the floor, and candles were smashed. 

“That’s definitely some chaos,” observed Albus as they entered the energetic Slytherin common room. 

“D’you think they’ll be able to clean it all up?” asked Scorpius.

“Oh, definitely. It’ll take the professors some time, though.”

They sat and played gobstones for a while, listening to the loud conversations about everyone’s day. Albus only caught snippets, but it sounded like everywhere had been hectic. 

“Did you see the library? Every table turned upside down-”

“The potions cupboard got totally unorganized-”

“They carried Professor Eldridge halfway across the lawn by his ears-”

Scorpius yawned and tapped Albus on the hand. “You want to go upstairs?”

Albus smiled softly at him. He was cute when he was tired. “Yeah, let’s go.”

“Wonder what’s up with Rose and Lexie and James,” said Scorpius as they got into bed. 

“Guess we’ll find out tomorrow,” said Albus, clicking out their light. “G’night, Scorpius.”

“Night. Don’t let the pixies bite.”

Albus threw a pillow at him. “Have you been saving that joke all day?”

“Yep! Just for you.”

“Wow, I’m glad I’m special.”

“You really are,” said Scorpius affectionately. 

“Nerd.”

“Definitely.”

Albus grinned, listening to Scorpius fall asleep in the bed next to him. Tomorrow would be the last day of term, and the day after, he would be heading home. For once, he almost wished he could stay at school – because he had Scorpius here, and, more recently, fun and excitement. Friends, being included, a _boyfriend,_ of all things. 

It had been a good term. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I took some creative license on Cornish pixies, since there's not that much canon info about them. Next chapter, we're back to the Potter household :)
> 
> So I was hoping to finish this fic before school started, but that didn't happen. There'll probably be 2 or 3 more chapters, probably posted once a week. Thank you so, so much to everyone still reading and commenting and talking to me about this – y'all are my favorite people and it keeps me going with this. Feedback gives me life, and my tumblr is thefourthschuyler if anyone wants to come chat about Harry Potter (or anything, really). Thanks for reading!


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey hey hey! Sorry these are taking so long, things got busy with school starting again, but anyway. This chapter was originally like 6k words, so I split it into 2, which means the next chapter is basically done and should be up really soon :) Hope y'all like it!

James, Rose, and Lexie were all absent from breakfast on Friday.

“D’you think this means the two of us are off the hook?” asked Scorpius excitedly, scanning the Great Hall.

“Shhhhh!” hissed Albus, “we’re definitely not, if you keep shouting about it.”

“But we’re probably fine, right?”

“It depends on McGonagall,” Albus reasoned, grabbing a scone. “She saw us with the others, so if she’s involved in dealing with them, she’ll know.”

“She’s not at breakfast,” observed Scorpius. He was right – she was absent from her seat in the middle of the staff table, which was very unusual.

“You guys looking for McGonagall?” asked Peter, leaning over to hear their conversation. “We reckon she’s out assigning detentions to your brother,” he said, nodding at Albus.

“Probably,” said Albus, “that was our guess.”

“So your brother was definitely involved?” asked a girl named Rachel from across the table.

“Who else would plan something like that?” asked Peter.

“Rose Granger-Weasley,” suggested Rachel.

“They both helped,” said Albus.

“How d’you know?”

Albus shot a glance at Scorpius, and Scorpius half-raised an eyebrow and shrugged in response.

“We were in on it,” said Albus quietly, “me and Scorpius. We knew the plan and we sort of helped out."

This information caused a few more people on either side to lean in and start asking a flurry of questions about how they pulled off the prank, where all the pixies came from, how they let them all in at once, how they covered it up… Albus and Scorpius were careful not to give out too many details, since the mystery of how they'd done it was half the fun.

“And you can’t tell the whole world we were involved,” said Scorpius quickly as soon as there was a break in the conversation. “Keep it under the radar.”

“The teachers don’t know you helped?”

“We don’t think so,” said Albus, shrugging at Scorpius. “Not yet, anyway. James needed our help and we said that was fine as long as he didn't tell anyone we were involved.”

Neither of the two saw Rose, James, or Lexie in the corridors all morning. It was still a mess, and a few pixies were still loose and doing their best to disrupt lessons. Six of them flew out from under a pile of empty crates in the greenhouse during Herbology, smashing through the glass roof and turning on every hose and sprinkler they could find. The initial pixie chaos had died down, but it was by no means over.

The three missing pranksters – Rose, James, and Lexie – finally appeared during lunch.

“Where’ve you three been?” asked Albus as soon as the group got a moment together.

“We were assigned to damage control,” said James, grinning, “I really feel that I’ve learned something about appreciating magical culture and abusing my school privileges.”

“Is that what McGonagall told you off for?” asked Albus.

“Oh, that’s just two on the list,” said Rose. “I swear, her lecture went all morning.”

“So…” said Scorpius, “Are we – me and Albus – in trouble?”

“We told McGonagall you weren’t involved,” said Rose.

“And she believed that?” asked Albus. "After she saw us walking out of a broom cupboard with you three minutes before pixies raided the school?"

“I’m not sure her heart was really in the punishment,” said Lexie. “She found us all at breakfast and she wasn’t even going to take me along with Rose and James at first.”

“So why are you with them now?” asked Scorpius.

“My idiot girlfriend got up and followed us out anyway,” said Rose, smirking.

“I assumed she knew!” Lexie protested.

“Anyway,” said James, rolling his eyes, “McGonagall didn’t ask about you two, she just asked if anyone else helped, and she let it slide when we said no.”

“So what’s your punishment?” asked Scorpius.

“Fifty points from each of our houses, we have to help tidy up the castle, and we’ve got detentions every week through February,” said Rose with a shrug.

“Also owls home to mum and dad,” said James.

Albus tried not to grin at that. “Oh, that’s awful.”

“Yeah, that sounds like real pity there,” said James sarcastically. “Well, we’ve got to eat and get back to cleaning.”

The three of them walked off. Scorpius grinned and turned to Albus.

“That’s _perfect!_ We’re not even in trouble! And fifty points from Hufflepuff and Gryffindor will give Slytherin a nice boost.”

“And mum and dad have been owled,” added Albus. “They’ll probably get the message this evening, and they’ll be furious at the James tomorrow.”

“So you’re really gonna tell them?” asked Scorpius as they walked upstairs to Transfiguration. "About us?"

“Yeah,” said Albus reluctantly, his stomach flipping. “And you?”

“I’ll tell my dad,” he said firmly. “I dunno when, or how, but I’ll tell him.”

“So by the time we come back to school, our families will both know.”

“There’s also the Ministry holiday party.”

“We don’t usually go,” said Albus. “What’s that got to do with anything?”

“Well,” said Scorpius, leaning against the wall as they reached the classroom, “we always go. I was thinking maybe you could come? And we could hang out there? You don’t have to, I just thought-”

“Yeah,” said Albus quickly, “I’ll go.”

“Good,” said Scorpius, relieved. “I hate going to those things alone, I just follow my dad around awkwardly all night.”

“So your dad’ll be there?”

“Mm-hm. Your aunt Hermione’s always there, too. And you can see if your family wants to come, since you’re going. It’s open to any Ministry families.”

“So basically,” said Albus, lowering his voice as they were ushered into the classroom, “we’ll be in a large crowd of wizards who know who we are, and we’ll be together in front of our parents, who are lifelong enemies, and who will have just found out that we’re dating.”

“That sums it up,” said Scorpius, sitting down.

“You know, maybe I _shouldn’t_ come to the party,” said Albus.

“You don’t _have_ to,” said Scorpius, “but it’s deadly boring being there alone, and my dad always drags me. And…”

“And?” whispered Albus as the teacher started writing on the board.

“I’ll miss you,” muttered Scorpius, looking up at Albus. “We won’t see each other for a couple weeks over break.”

Albus reached under the table and squeezed his hand gently. “Okay. I’ll think about it.”

 

Albus set his alarm for early on Saturday morning and threw together everything he needed to take home for break. The train to London was leaving at ten, and he still needed to pack and say goodbye to Scorpius. And mentally prepare himself to see his parents, but Albus was pretty sure that no amount of thought would make him feel more ready for that. In fact, the more he thought about that, the more anxious he felt, so he did his best to push that to the back of his mind as he threw clothes into his trunk.

“Hiya,” said a sleepy voice behind Albus.

“Morning, nerd,” said Albus, grinning at Scorpius. “Ready for break?”

“Extremely ready,” he said. “Except not really, I haven’t even started packing. What time is it?”

“Nine.”

Scorpius groaned. “I guess that means I need to get out of bed.”

“Yeah, now might be the time for that.”

Scorpius got up and started quickly gathering his things, and Albus slammed his trunk closed and gave the room one last check to make sure he had everything. He sat on his bed and talked to Scorpius, waiting for him to finish packing so they could walk down to the carriages together.

Eventually, they made their way down to the thestral-drawn carriages, and then to the train. It was already mostly full when they got there, but they found Rose sitting in a compartment to herself.

“Where’s your gal pal?” asked Albus, pushing his trunk under a seat.

“She’s staying at school for a few days, her parents are on holiday in Greece,” said Rose.

“So you’re stuck with us?” said Scorpius.

“Nah, I’ll find my cooler friends when you dorks get boring. Or when I start third-wheeling,” said Rose, raising her eyebrows and smirking.

“Shut up,” grumbled Albus.

“You’re not third-wheeling!” said Scorpius quickly, turning pink and trying for a change of subject. “Anyone want to, um, work on the Charms essay?”

Rose and Albus gaped at Scorpius.

“Or, er, maybe play exploding snap?” Scorpius suggested.

“That’s better,” said Rose. “I’m procrastinating my homework until the train ride back to school.”

The three got the game started as the train rolled through the countryside. Snow was falling lightly outside, and a few inches covered the ground in some places. It was warm and cosy in the compartment, still dressed in their robes and drinking hot tea (Rose boiled the water with a heating spell, as none of them were eager to buy anything from the trolley). After the game finished, Scorpius leaned his head against Albus’s shoulder and took his hand, winding their fingers together.

“You’re warm,” Scorpius muttered into Albus’s sweater.

“So are you.”

Albus pushed a lock of blond hair out of Scorpius’s eyes. Rose watched them with a smirk, and Albus ignored her.

“What did I say about third-wheeling?” said Rose after a few minutes, rolling her eyes.

“I think he fell asleep,” said Albus.

“Yeah, he’s out.”

They rode without talking for a while, with only the rattling train and laughter from outside the carriage filling the silence. It was peaceful, quiet, comfortable – a good time to relax before being thrown back in with a huge family.

“So are you planning on telling your parents?” asked Rose after a while, nodding at Scorpius, who was still asleep on Albus’s shoulder and still gripping his hand.

“Yeah, when I get a chance,” said Albus.

“Good luck.”

“Thanks, I need it.”

“Albus, your parents won’t care,” said Rose. “Honestly, I think they have bigger things on their minds.”

“They’re always annoyingly invested in our lives,” said Albus.

“Well, of course they worry, but in the end… they’ll get that it’s not a big deal, you dating a Malfoy. You dating a guy.”

“How did your parents take it?” asked Albus. “You know, when you told them about Lexie.”

“I haven’t.”

“Really?” said Albus, surprised. He’d gotten the impression that Rose and her mother were really close.

“Really. I thought about it, but it’s not like I would tell them if I was dating a guy, either,” she said with a shrug. “I just don’t feel like I need to, even though I know they wouldn’t mind. Dad would probably celebrate, honestly, he was worried I’d end up dating Scorpius.”

“Huh,” said Albus, thinking that over.

“You don’t have to tell your parents if you don’t want to,” said Rose.

“No, I know,” said Albus slowly, “I will, though.”

“Do you want to?”

Albus thought about it for a minute, imagining telling them, then imagining not telling them – staying with Scorpius and just not saying anything to his parents.

“I guess so,” said Albus. “I mean… I don’t want them hearing it from anyone else but me. I want to control that. And I guess I want to try to… to be more up front with them. Especially Dad. The whole closed-off thing sort of blew up last year.”

Rose nodded. “Makes sense. And him?”

Albus glanced down at Scorpius, still fast asleep on his shoulder.

“He’s telling his dad,” said Albus.

“So you two have an exciting break lined up.”

“So do you,” said Albus, smirking. “Your parents just found out about your little pixie adventure.”

“So they did,” said Rose grimly. “Dad’s probably jealous, Mum’s probably going to ground me for a few days and then want to know how we did it.”

“Could be worse,” said Albus, grinning.

“Yeah, I guess.”

 

Scorpius woke up about an hour away from London, and the three of them enjoyed their last moments together before the train rolled into King’s Cross station. Rose got up at one point and left the compartment to change out of her robes and into Muggle clothes. Barely thirty seconds after she left, there was a knock on the door. 

"Probably Rose," muttered Albus to Scorpius, who was still curled up to him, half-asleep. "Come in!" he called. 

The door slid open, and to his surprise, it was James who came in, not Rose. 

"James!" he said, frowning. Scorpius straightened up and slid just slightly away from Albus. "What're you doing here?"

"Just wanted to say hi," he said, sitting on the bench opposite them and propping his feet up. "I also wanted to talk to Rose about how we're handling our families post-prank, but I guess that'll have to wait."

"She went to change," said Scorpius. 

"Ah, okay. So, Christmas, huh?"

Albus shot Scorpius a confused look. 

"Um, yes," said Scorpius, "it's this week."

"So I've heard," said James, nodding. "Would you happen to be bringing any interesting news to the table, Albus?”

Albus rolled his eyes. “Nothing interesting to you.”

“Really? Because I thought you might be mentioning-”

“It’s none of your business, James!” Albus snapped, seeing Scorpius’s fierce blush, picking up on his fidgeting. James held up his hands defensively. 

"Okay, okay! I was just wondering, no need to get all snappy."

Scorpius was peeling apart the foil wrapper of a chocolate frog, focusing on balling up the pieces, looking like he wished he was somewhere else.

Albus took a deep breath. "James, you're the last person who needs to be worrying about this."

"Merlin, Albus, I was just  _curious-_ "

"I think I'll go change, too," said Scorpius, standing up so fast that he fell over again. He jumped back up, grabbed his Muggle clothes, and hurried out of the compartment.

"Nice job, James," said Albus sullenly. "You made him all uncomfortable."

"Isn't he always like that?"

"He's just a little shy!" said Albus. "Maybe if you'd stop interrogating us-"

"Calm down, Al."

"Stay out of it, James," said Albus coldly. 

"Wait, Albus," James protested, "that went all wrong. I just meant – I meant to ask if you need any help, with telling Mum and Dad or whatever."

"Really?" said Albus skeptically.

"Yeah, really. I know Mum and Dad can be sort of hard to talk to for you, and, well, I thought you might want help or something."

Albus considered that for a moment. "That was an interesting way to offer your help."

"Sarcasm is my default setting," said James. "But, anyway... do you need anything?"

“Well, I don’t need any help from you, just... please don't bring it up,” said Albus. 

“Okay,” said James, sounding relieved. “Just making sure.”

“Why this sudden change of heart?” asked Albus.

“I’m just doing my duty as protective older brother.”

“You’re a bit out of practice.”

“Yeah, sorry about that,” said James awkwardly. “But I’d say I get credit for trying.”

Albus rolled his eyes. “Sure. At least you’re making an attempt.”

James clapped him on the back and stood up. “Alright, little bro, I’ve got to go find Rose."

"Okay," said Albus, watching him leave. That was a small victory – but making relative peace with James was, he supposed, progress. And Albus appreciated that he was trying, even if it maybe hadn't been done exactly right.

Scorpius slid back into the compartment, having changed into a sweater and tight-fitting jeans (which looked really good on him, which Albus tried to ignore). 

"What'd James want?" asked Scorpius, sliding back up to Albus's side and leaning against him.

"That was his roundabout way of asking if I need any help telling Mum and Dad."

"Really?" said Scorpius, surprised. "Not what I expected."

"No, me neither. Sorry he was acting so weird."

"Not your fault," said Scorpius. "I just wanted to stay out of the sibling drama."

"That's probably a good plan," agreed Albus. "What happened to Rose?"

"She and James stopped to chat."

Fifteen minutes later, the world outside disappeared as the train rolled through a short tunnel and slowed to a stop. Albus moved aside the window curtain and looked out, seeing the train doors open and a platform full of parents and siblings. "We're here."

“Well,” said Scorpius, standing and turning to Albus, “I guess I won’t see you for a while.”

Albus sighed. “I guess not.”

They stood for a moment, not entirely sure what to do, before Scorpius pulled Albus into a tight hug.

“I’ll miss you,” he whispered.

“I’ll miss you too.”

They stayed together as long as thought they could without making their parents wonder what was taking them so long. Albus finally broke away and looked at Scorpius, smiling at him. He gently placed his hand on the back of Scorpius's neck, closing his eyes and leaning their foreheads together.

“See you at new year’s,” whispered Albus. Scorpius grinned.

“Yeah, for sure.”

Albus looked back up, closing space between them and kissing Scorpius lightly before turning and leaving the compartment.

“There you are!” said Ginny as Albus stepped onto the platform. She rushed forward and pulled her son into a hug.

“Hey, Mum,” said Albus, grinning and squeezing her back.

“What took you so long?” she asked, leading him towards where his father was standing with James, Rose, and the Granger-Weasleys.

_Oh, you know, just kissing my boyfriend goodbye. That would be Scorpius Malfoy, by the way, the grandson of the man who gave you a diary that ended up letting Voldemort possess you for a year._

Yeah, he wasn’t about to tell Ginny now.

“Just saying goodbye to friends,” said Albus instead. They reached the rest of the group and Albus was quickly pulled into hugs by his aunt and uncle.

“Al!” said Harry, spotting him and beaming. He gave Albus a quick hug. “Had a good term?”

“Yeah, it’s been all right,” said Albus.

“He’s had a _great_ term,” muttered Lily on Albus’s left. Albus kicked her in the shin.

“Have you, now?” asked Harry, raising an eyebrow. “That’s good, you’re usually all moody about school.”

Ginny frowned at him, a puzzled look on her face that Albus pretended not to notice.

“Well, we should get going if we want to beat traffic,” said Harry, checking his watch. Albus craned his neck to look around the platform as they shuffled back towards the barrier. He spotted Scorpius standing with his father, already looking at Albus and smiling softly. Albus waved, and Scorpius waved back, and a moment later he was back in the Muggle station with his family.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will be up by Tuesday-ish. Thanks for reading, and thank you so, so much to everyone commenting, I love you all :) Unless something unexpected happens, I think there'll be two more chapters. 
> 
> I'm also on tumblr @thefourthschuyler if anyone wants to come chat about harry potter with me :)


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The one we've all been waiting for :)

Lily wouldn’t shut up the whole car ride home, which Albus was perfectly happy with – it meant that he had to talk less. James also looked a little relieved, since every second that Lily was talking stalled the inevitable lecture coming up about his prank and punishment.

Finally Harry cut into Lily’s rambling. 

“So what have the rest of you been up to this term?” he asked.

Albus and James shared a nervous glance. 

“Well,” started James, “I’ve mostly just been-”

“Raising and releasing hundreds of pixies?” asked Ginny, shooting a glare full of daggers at James. 

“Don’t worry, I did my homework, too,” said James.

“James,” said Harry carefully, “Things you do at Hogwarts should  _ minimize  _ harm, not make more. You shouldn’t be creating more problems for teachers to handle.”

“Uncle George set demon fireworks on the teachers once.”

“Your uncles were retaliating against an evil ministry employee,” Ginny pointed out. Albus knew exactly how this argument would play out; he’d heard it half a dozen times.

“And Fred and George aren’t exactly examples to live by,” said Harry.

“Oh, please, you worshipped them,” said Ginny, rolling her eyes. 

“I did not! They were brilliant, and quite a laugh, but they could be a bit over-the-top,” said Harry. 

“Admit it, you thought they were the height of cool,” said Ginny, grinning. 

“I liked their ambition,” said Harry firmly, and then seemed to remember what was supposed to be going on in this conversation. “Anyway. James. Anything involving live animals is bound to be risky, it could’ve gone so, so wrong.”

“Not to mention the security risks that come with buying creatures off of strange men in Hogsmeade,” said Ginny sternly. 

The rest of the car ride was all James and his parents trying to negotiate his restrictions and punishments over the holiday, and Albus stared out the window at passing traffic, wondering what Scorpius was doing. Would he tell his dad today, the first chance he got? Albus guessed that he would. Scorpius wasn’t the type to wait for anything, not the type to put things off. He would do it carefully, systematically, probably as soon as he could. 

Albus wondered if he should make a plan, work out exactly what he should say, but all the words floating through his head wouldn’t sort themselves into sentences. He couldn’t force them into a speech that didn’t sound awkward or forced, so he gave it up. He’d just have to wing it.

 

Albus kept looking for a chance to talk to his parents over the next few days, but it never seemed to come up, and when it did, he stalled until the opportunity was gone.  Albus was pleasantly surprised to have a letter from Scorpius already waiting for him when he got up on Sunday morning. He read it over breakfast, carefully leaning over it whenever anyone walked behind him. He wrote back to Scorpius as soon as he could, and he got an answer that evening, since he and Scorpius didn’t live far apart. 

Albus woke up to another letter waiting for him on Monday morning. He read it eagerly.

 

_ Albus, _

_ I think I’m going to tell my dad today. He has to go in to work today and tomorrow, so I think I’ll tell him tonight when he gets home, and then I won’t see him tomorrow so there won’t really be a chance to talk about it, and by Wednesday he’ll be thinking about Christmas and everything, and it’ll be in the past. So I've pretty much decided, I guess. Now I’m going to be nervous all day. I already cleaned my room and the bathroom and finished my Arithmancy homework, so now there’s not much for me to keep busy with. Yikes. I’m trying not to think about it but it’s kind of taking up a lot of my brain space.  _

_ I’ll tell you how it goes. Sorry this was so short, I just… can’t think.  _

_ Wish me luck,  _

_ Scorpius _

 

Albus sat on his bed and stared at the wall, holding the letter loosely in his hand. So Scorpius was going to tell his dad today.  _ I guess I should get on with it too,  _ thought Albus. But right now he was more worried about his boyfriend, stress cleaning everything in his house and probably writing mostly incoherent essays for his homework. It was a bit concerning. He found a pen and parchment and wrote Scorpius a quick reply. 

 

_ Scorpius,  _

_ Wow. Big day.  _

_ Okay, we both know I’m terrible with advice and motivation and all that rubbish, but anyway. Your dad is going to be totally cool with it, and even if he’s not, there’s nothing he can really do. Even if he’s not, that’s okay. It would be awful and everything, but since when have you needed approval from other people? We're staying together no matter what, and I know that if you want to, you'll be able to tell him. It'll only take a few minutes, and then it's over with. Just try to stay calm today, and if you're freaking out too much, you don't need to tell him, it's fine if you can't today.  _

_ There, at least I tried. I’ve got my fingers crossed for you. _

_ Good luck, _

_ Albus  _

 

Albus sent off the owl and spent the rest of the day trying to work on his summer homework, but he kept getting distracted with worry for Scorpius, wondering when his father would get home. 

After hours of anxious waiting, there was finally a tap on the kitchen window while Harry was making dinner. Albus was in the doorway as soon as he heard the owl hooting. 

“Is that for me, dad?” asked Albus. 

“Yeah, from Scorpius,” said Harry, reading the name on the letter and passing it to him. Albus grabbed it and raced upstairs to read it.  

“Albus!” Ginny called after him. “We’re about to eat, can that wait?”

“I’ll read it quick, Mum!” Albus called down the stairs from his bedroom doorway. 

“Five minutes!”

“Yeah, okay!”

He shut the door and unfolded the letter to see that the handwriting was messy and full of scribbles, like it had been written in a hurry. 

 

_ Albus, _

_ I did it. I told my dad. _

_ I didn’t even think about it at the time. It was weird. I’d been planning to tell him, obviously, but I almost didn’t think I would really do it. It just sort of happened. _

_ I went downstairs when I heard him come home from work, and he asked me how I was, and I just said I wasn’t straight. I didn’t even say hi or anything – honestly, I’m a mess. So he looked all taken aback, which makes sense, I guess, since that’s probably not what he was expecting when he asked me how my day was. He did this kind of double-take and said, “Sorry, what was that?” and then I had to say it again even though I’d already said it. It was harder the second time, actually. But then after he thought about that for a minute he sort of nodded and he said it didn’t make a difference to him as long as I was happy and ‘reaching my full potential.’ I had no idea how to follow that up so I went back upstairs, and then a few minutes later he came into my room and asked if I was ‘still spending time with the Potter boy,’ and I said yes, and I was pretty sure I knew what he was getting at, but he kept talking around it. He finally just asked if we were together and I said we are. And then – the weirdest thing, honestly – he looked all satisfied with himself and said ‘I knew it,’ and just walked out! How could he have known?? What on earth could tip him off??  _

_ I’m not really sure how I feel about that. It’s kinda sweet, though – apparently we’re so in love that even my dad could tell. But it makes me wonder who else might know. _

_ So I guess it went well. He didn’t say anything else to me about it, and he’s mostly treating me exactly the same, which is a bit of a relief. He’s been a bit less broody, which is cool. Actually, it went really well. I feel better now. I didn’t think I would, but it’s such a relief to just be done with it. _

_ Sorry for rambling a bit, but I’ve been a little giddy for the last half-hour, and I needed to tell you.  _

_ When are you telling your parents? _

_ Miss you, _

_ Scorpius _

 

Albus skimmed the letter twice. He was a bit surprised that Scorpius had done it already, on the third day of break – now it felt like he had to do it, too. And also, if Scorpius’s dad had somehow seen this coming… what if his parents did, too? Would that make it easier to tell them, or harder? 

“Al!” came Lily’s voice from outside his door. “Mum says you’ve got to come now.”

“Yeah, yeah, just a-”

“You can write your boyfriend later!”

Albus rolled his eyes at that, carefully refolding the letter and adding it to the stack before running downstairs. The rest of the family was already sitting down, and James was once again trying to protest the extra chores and punishments he’d been given after the prank. The chatter died down as Albus hurried into his seat. 

“You’ve sure had a lot of owls today,” said Ginny, raising her eyebrows. 

Albus shrugged and took a sip of water. 

“Have you?” asked Harry, sharing a look with Ginny. 

“Only two,” said Albus. 

“From…?” asked Ginny. 

“Just Scorpius,” said Albus, staring at his plate and trying desperately to sound casual. 

“Speaking of the Malfoys, I just ran into his father,” said Harry. Albus’s heart stopped, and for a split second he was  _ sure  _ his dad knew… now that Scorpius had told his father, it was completely possible that he would say something…  Scorpius thought his father wouldn’t talk about it, but he could have been wrong…. Lucius must have said something after all, must have brought it up… 

“We had to collaborate in the meeting, it was a nightmare,” Harry finished. Albus let out the breath he’d been holding, and he realized he’d been stupid – Scorpius’s letter said he’d told his dad  _ after  _ he got home from work.  _ Why am I so on edge?  _

“Daaaaaad,” Lily groaned, “no work-related complaining, it’s boring.”

Harry laughed. “Right, sorry.”

“Anyway,” said Ginny, looking back at Albus, “I take it you two are still friends, then?”

“Um. Yeah, yeah, definitely,” said Albus.

“Wait, I thought- ouch, James, that was my shin!” Lily stopped talking abruptly, James shaking his head slightly to shut her up. Albus shot him a grateful look.

“So you  _ are  _ still friends?” asked Ginny, looking between the three kids. 

“Yeah.”

“Good to hear,” she said. She gave Harry one of those long looks that always meant they were having conversation made of eye contact, one of the ones that no one else could ever decipher. 

“So, er, do any of you need anything else for school? We could go into Diagon Alley,” said Harry, covering up the awkward silence. James quickly started talking, and Albus forced himself to relax, slightly stunned at James covering for him. Dinner seemed to go on forever before the family finally started getting up. 

Albus dumped his dishes in the sink and turned to race back upstairs. He’d been itching to answer Scorpius’s letter, ask for more details-

“Hey, can you help with dishes?” Ginny asked, taking Albus’s upper arm as he was about to run out. “It’ll only take a minute, I promise.”

Albus glanced between his mother and father, desperately wanting to leave, but he couldn’t think of a way out of this.

“Yeah, sure.”

“Thanks,” said Ginny, flicking water from the sink at him. 

She shot cleaning spells at the plates and glasses, and Albus put the clean dishes in the cupboards, trying to do the job as fast as possible.

“I’m glad you’re still so close to Scorpius,” said Ginny nonchalantly, examining a plate carefully and stalling the process, leaving Albus standing there empty-handed.

“Yeah,” he said. 

“Friends are important. Isn’t that right, Harry?” she asked. Harry looked up from where he was shuffling through the  _ Prophet  _ and pretending not to listen (Albus knew he was pretending; he had the paper upside-down). 

“Hm? Yeah, definitely.”

“And because I’m your mother, I need to ask the obligatory annoying-mum question,” said Ginny, handing Albus the plate and waiting for him to put it away before going on. “Are you going out with anyone?”

Albus felt his face burning. Half of him was screaming,  _ say it say it say it,  _ but the other half was saying otherwise. “Er, well, you know, it’s a busy year and all, with, um, OWLs, and we don’t really have that much time-”

“As if that ever stopped anyone,” muttered Harry, smirking. 

“True,” said Ginny, pointing a spatula at Harry. “So…?”

“Um,” said Albus awkwardly, running a hand through his hair. 

“You don’t  _ have  _ to tell us,” said Harry quickly. “I mean, we’d like to know and all, and you can trust us, but-”

“What he’s trying to say is that we respect your privacy, but know that as your parents, our curiosity and investment in your life mean that we might literally go insane if you don’t tell us.”

“Thanks, Ginny,” said Harry. 

“So you’re free to go now and not say anything, but-”

“Scorpius,” said Albus finally. 

He wasn’t sure where that had come from, and he’d hoped to be a little more clear than that, but there it was. He’d said it – sort of. Albus held his breath. He could practically hear his heartbeat in his ears, and his palms were damp. He desperately wanted something to do with his hands, or somewhere to go; he felt so awkward and exposed standing in the middle of the kitchen, everything left up to his parents now. 

“Scorpius, what?” asked Harry, confused. Ginny shot him a look.

“Oh, you mean that –  _ oh! _ ”

“Well, I’m glad that you two finally sorted that out,” said Ginny, grinning. 

“Huh?” asked Albus. 

“Wait, what?” said Harry. 

“Oh, please… letters coming at least daily over the summer, every conversation is Scorpius-centered, the chemistry last year was unbelievable.”

Albus and Harry both gaped at her. Ginny shrugged. 

“Anyone with common sense could see that that wasn’t just friendship.”

“I dunno, I didn’t see it,” said Harry. 

“Like I said,  _ anyone with common sense. _ ”

Harry whacked her with a rolled-up newspaper.

“So you knew?” asked Albus, thinking that over.

“Well, I didn’t  _ know,  _ but it definitely crossed my mind. I wasn’t sure you two would ever pick up on it or act on it.”

“Well… we did,” said Albus. 

“Good,” said Ginny. “He’s a nice kid. And cute, too,” she added, nudging Albus, and if he thought he’d already reached his limit on how much he could blush, he’d just been proven wrong.

“Mum!” he groaned.

“You’re not denying it!” said Ginny, grinning and standing up. “I’m going to go make sure James isn’t sneaking out the window.” She squeezed Albus gently on the shoulder and left the kitchen, leaving him with Harry.

“I didn’t know you were into blokes,” said Harry – not rudely, just curiously. Albus ran a hand through his hair again. Best to get it all out on the table now, anyway.

“Er, yeah, neither did I. Not until maybe a month ago,” he said, avoiding meeting his dad’s eyes. “But yeah.”

Harry shrugged. “At least you’re not breeding dangerous creatures in the castle and setting them on teachers.”

Albus laughed shakily at that. “Yeah, there’s that, at least.”

“But really,” said Harry quietly after a pause, “It doesn’t matter to us – to me and your mother and the rest of the family. Not that you’re gay, not that you’re dating Scorpius Malfoy. If you’re happy, we’re happy.”

Albus didn’t trust himself to speak. He swallowed and kept his eyes on the floor, wondering where this burst of sentimentality came from. 

“Thanks, Dad,” he said, finally looking up. Harry smiled back and stepped forward, pulling Albus into a hug. For once, Albus didn’t shrug it off. 

“I’m glad you get to be with him,” said Harry, pulling away. “I can’t say I saw that coming, but I suppose it makes sense, looking back.”

Albus just nodded. 

“Okay, you can go write to your boyfriend,” said Harry, smirking at him. Albus rolled his eyes and hurried out of the kitchen, barely believing that the last ten minutes had really happened. He felt like someone had just lifted a giant backpack off his back, and a bit rushed with adrenaline. 

He sat down to write his letter, and he was pretty sure it showed that his mind was everywhere, but he sent it anyway. 

 

_ Scorpius, _

_ I got your letter, and that’s amazing. I’m glad it went okay.  _

_ So I told my parents too. My mum asked about you, and then she and Dad pulled me into the kitchen after dinner and asked if I was dating anyone, so I told them. My mum said she had known, too, so apparently we were ridiculously obvious before we even got together. My dad didn’t notice, but then again, feelings are just about his biggest weakness. But he was really, really nice about it, and he said he didn’t care and whatever. It sounded a lot nicer when he said it. And Mum was just being Mum, being witty and all, but it was good. She just seemed happy. She said she was glad we’ve sorted things out.  _

_ I can’t believe it’s done. It’s weird. But good weird.  _

_ I hope you’re having a good break. I miss you a lot. I’ve gotten so used to you, and now you’re not here and it’s all lonely. I haven’t asked my parents about the new year’s party yet, but I will, and I’m sure they’ll say it’s okay. I can’t wait to see you again. I forgot how much I hate being away from you. I really kind of need you around. _

_ I guess feelings are one of my weaknesses, too, but anyway, I just wanted to say that. _

_ Love,  _

_ Albus _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally got this chapter up! I kept going back to it and tweaking little things and generally being super picky about tiny details, so I really hope it turned out okay. This was a big thing to write and a lot of people were looking forward to it, so I hope I did it justice! Thoughts and feedback are, as always, my absolute favorite things :) Thanks to everyone for commenting/reading/leaving kudos etc!!!
> 
> Next chapter is probably the last one.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oops, it's been over a month... sorry guys, IB is killing me. Anyway. Here's some sappy fluff. I'm pretty happy with how this turned out, so I hope you like it :)

Two days from the Ministry New Year’s party that Scorpius had invited him to, Albus decided he should probably mention it to his parents. He finally asked Ginny about it when they were walking back from flying in a nearby empty park.

“The party?” she asked, frowning slightly. “We’ve never gone.”

“No, I know,” said Albus, “But I thought it might be cool.”

“And Scorpius is going to be there,” said Ginny, smirking. 

“Er. Yeah, I think he might be going.”

Ginny laughed. “This is just for Scorpius, isn’t it? You’re not a party person.”

Albus felt his cheeks go bright red. “Well, I haven’t seen him in a while, so I just thought, you know, it might be nice to see him again before term starts. We’ll be busy with OWLs and stuff.”

Ginny nodded. “Well, we already told Ron and Hermione we'd go to their place, and your father really isn’t one for public parties, especially since none of our friends go anyway.”

“Oh,” said Albus, his heart sinking. He’d really wanted to see Scorpius.

“That doesn’t mean you can’t see him, though,” said Ginny. “You could always invite him over. I can’t imagine he’s a big fan of the Ministry party, either.” 

Albus thought about it for a second before answering. “I guess so.”

“We could pick him up from his house on our way to Ron and Hermione’s,” Ginny offered. “They’re not far from the Malfoys.”

“That would be great,” said Albus, grinning. “I’ll ask him if he wants to come.”

“Let me know, and I can arrange it with his father,” said Ginny. 

Albus sprinted upstairs as soon as he got home – he had a letter to write. 

 

By the end of the day, the plans were all set – the Potters would bring Scorpius to their party, and Draco would head off to the Ministry. Ginny was rather vague about how on board with the plan Draco was, but they had gotten permission to take Scorpius, and that was all Albus really cared about. 

New Year’s was cold and grey, with wet snowflakes falling gently from the looming clouds and leaving a thin layer of snowy slush on the roads. Harry glanced out the window as the family was getting ready to leave and groaned. 

“Well, that’s no fun to drive in.”

“Here,” said Ginny, taking the keys. “I got it.”

“You’re a life saver,” said Harry, grinning. 

“Oh, I know. Let’s get going!”

Ginny waved the family out towards the car. Albus climbed into the back, Lily and James getting in on either side of him. The ride passed mostly in silence. 

This seemed like the perfect solution – Albus got to see Scorpius, and they wouldn’t be surrounded by high-profile, overly curious people at the Ministry. Then again, though, Albus had a huge family, and this was the first time they would see him and Scorpius together as a couple. And honestly, most of his family  _ was _ high-profile and overly curious. But at least it was his family and not total strangers. He just hoped Scorpius wouldn’t feel out of place and awkward.

Before Albus knew it, Ginny was outside of the suburbs on a deserted country road while Harry read her directions he’d written down earlier. 

“Where are we going?” asked James, frowning at the scenery. “This isn’t Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione’s neighborhood.”

“Your brother didn’t tell you?” asked Harry, glancing back. “We’re making a quick stop  to pick up Scorpius, he’s coming around to the party.”

Albus tried to sink lower into the seat. 

“Albus has a da-ate,” teased Lily in a singsong voice. 

“It’s not a date,” Albus grumbled.

“Right, just a party with a pal,” said James. “Is his dad coming too?”

“No,” said Harry, “we invited him, but, you know… might be awkward.”

Just then, Ginny pulled into a long, winding dirt driveway at the dead end of a street, steering slowly. The snow was falling heavier now, and it dusted the lawn and the drive. A large dark stone house loomed just ahead.

“I feel like this is the part of the horror film where you yell at everyone to turn back,” said Lily, eyeing a stone archway as the car passed under it. 

“There used to be gates there,” Harry muttered, getting the faraway look in his eye that he sometimes did. 

“Scorpius’s mum took them down,” said Albus, remembering a story Scorpius had told him years ago. “She was sick of having to open and close them for everyone who wanted to come and go.”

Ginny pulled to a stop in front of the house, and Albus climbed out of the car. His parents and siblings trailed a half step behind, letting him step forward. Albus tentatively rapped the door with the brass knocker, the sound dissolving in the snow. 

Seconds later, the door swung open, and the front steps were flooded with light. Albus didn’t get a chance to even glance at the inside of the house before he was being pulled into a warm, tight hug. He tried to forget that his family was there watching him, and he leaned into Scorpius, taking a deep breath, the nerves at the pit of his stomach calming. Scorpius was wearing a soft grey hoodie and jeans, beaming at Albus. 

“Hello, Potter,” said a cool, clear voice. Albus pulled back, shooting a grin at Scorpius before looking up at Draco Malfoy. 

“Draco,” said Harry, reaching out and shaking his hand. Draco and Ginny shared a curt nod. Scorpius looked between them, biting his lip. 

“It’s so nice of you to let Scorpius join us,” said Harry. 

“No problem at all,” said Draco. “I’m glad it worked out.”

“Yes, Albus had been looking forward to it,” said Ginny. 

There was a brief pause. 

“Er… would you like to come in-?”

“Thanks,” said Ginny, smiling and stepping inside. Lily and James followed her, and Harry hesitantly went after them. Albus and Scorpius lingered outside for a moment. 

“Well, this should be interesting,” said Scorpius, grinning. 

“Yeah, ‘interesting’ is one way to put it.”

Scorpius reached out and brushed Albus’s hand, and Albus followed him inside.

Whatever he’d been expecting, it wasn’t this. The walls in the large, open room were painted a nice off-white, and the room was lit by a glass ceiling. A sweeping spiral staircase stood at the center, and open doors around the hall lead to brightly lit corridors and rooms. 

“Wow, this is…” said Albus, spinning around slowly. 

“Way too fancy?” suggested Scorpius. 

“Less so than I thought, after I saw the outside,” said Albus. “And less dark and depressing.”

“Yeah, it does sort of look evil, doesn’t it?” said Scorpius. “Mum and Dad totally redid most of the inside. We still have the old library and the dining hall and the greenhouse, but this room and the bedrooms are all a little less creepy.”

“It looks nice,” said Albus. 

“It’s a great place,” said Ginny to Draco.

“Thank you,” he said with a nod and a small smile. “We put a lot of work into redoing it a few years after Scorpius was born.”

“It’s very different,” said Harry. “It’s changed a lot since…”

The adults exchanged a few tense looks, Ginny reaching out and taking Harry’s hand. 

“Well, it, er, certainly looks good,” said Harry to fill the silence. “I like the changes.”

Scorpius nudged Albus lightly. “Do you want to come with me to get my stuff?”

“Yeah, okay,” said Albus, relieved to have an excuse to leave the adults. “Where is it?”

“I’ve got my bag upstairs,” said Scorpius, starting up the large staircase. Albus followed him at a jog up to the second floor and down to the end of a long, dark corridor. 

“This is me!” said Scorpius, flipping on the lights. His room was on the corner of the house with windows on two sides, looking out over the sweeping lawns and the nearby suburbs. The walls were painted pale blue, and every shelf was piled haphazardly with books, journals, and papers.

“This is awesome,” said Albus, stepping inside. 

“Thanks,” said Scorpius brightly, grabbing a small backpack from his bed. He stepped back to the doorway, ready to leave, and stopped for a second, his hand hovering over the light switch. 

“Did you forget something?” asked Albus, glancing around the room. 

“Not really,” said Scorpius. He dropped his bag and pulled Albus into another hug. “But we probably won’t have much time alone tonight, and I missed you.”

Albus laughed, running his fingers over the fabric of Scorpius’s sweatshirt and squeezing him back. “I missed you, too.” 

Scorpius finally pulled away, locking his fingers with Albus’s. “Should we go?”

“Yeah,” said Albus. The two of them hurried back downstairs, still holding hands. The rest of the group was still gathered near the foot of the stairs, Draco making small talk about the Ministry party. 

“Got everything?” asked Harry, turning as he saw the boys approaching.

“Yep!” said Scorpius. 

“Well, we should be off, then,” said Harry. They headed back for the doorway.

“Have a good time,” said Draco, smiling at Scorpius as he turned to leave the house. "Don't get into too much trouble."

“I won't,” said Scorpius, taking Albus’s hand again. “Have fun at the Ministry.”

Scorpius squeezed onto the end of the seat in the back, pressed up against Albus.  

“Had a good holiday, Scorpius?” asked Ginny as they merged back onto the highway. 

“Yeah, it was nice,” said Scorpius. “How was yours?”

“Not bad,” said Albus.  _ Better, now that you’re here.  _ Not that he could say that with his siblings in the car – Lily would never let him hear the end of it. 

The next ten minutes passed with scattered small talk. Scorpius didn’t let go of Albus’s hand the whole ride, and he really couldn't care less about the smirks he was getting from James and Lily. They were together, and his parents didn't give them a second glance, and Draco had acted completely normal. It was honestly perfect.

“The Granger-Weasley household,” Ginny announced, parking across the street from a house at the end of a quiet avenue. “Everybody out!”

The group hurried up to the front door. Harry rang the doorbell, and it swung open seconds later.

“Harry!” said Hermione, pulling her friend into a hug. “It’s so lovely to see you, come in, come in… Hi, Ginny, James, Lily, get inside, it’s freezing out… And hello, Albus!” she said, beaming. 

“Hey, aunt Hermione,” said Albus, letting her hug him. 

“And hi, Scorpius,” said Hermione kindly. “I’m so happy you could come.”

“Thanks for having me,” said Scorpius, grinning.

"No problem," she said. "I'm glad you and Albus could come together."

They hurried inside and shut the door, suddenly in a bright, warm room. Music and laughter could be heard from the next room, and something smelled good. Hermione had already disappeared to rejoin the party, and Albus and Scorpius were left alone in the entrance hallway. Albus looked at Scorpius and offered him a quick smile. Now that he was here, the nerves had come back – his whole family was about to see him with Scorpius. 

“Hey!” said an enthusiastic voice from behind him. Albus whirled around and saw Rose running down the stairs. 

“Rose!” said Albus, embracing her quickly. 

“Hey, Scorpius,” she said, smiling at him. 

“Hi.”

“Let’s go to the dining room, there’s food out,” she said, pushing past them. 

“Er, Rose,” said Albus quickly, grabbing her sleeve and stopping her. “I wanted to ask  you… do your parents know about us?” he asked, pointing between him and Scorpius. 

“Well, no one’s told them, but my mum definitely knows.”

“Yeah, I noticed. How would she know if no one’s told her, though?” asked Scorpius, following Rose cautiously. 

“Oh, please,” said Rose, rolling her eyes and smirking, “she’s observant. She probably at least suspected for a while.”

The three of them slipped into the dining room. Hermione and Ron were talking to Harry, and Ginny was laughing at something Luna had just said. She looked as eccentric as always, wearing bright red robes and a flowery headband. Teddy was talking to James in another corner.

“There’s a lot of people here,” Scorpius muttered. 

“Don’t worry,” said Albus, “It’s just my family. You’ve met most of them before.”

“Are those chocolate cauldrons?” asked Scorpius, his eyes lighting up as he caught sight of the food. Albus laughed. 

“Yeah, let’s go.”

“Albus!” called uncle Ron as the two made their way to the food. “It’s been ages.”

“I saw you a week ago,” said Albus, grinning. 

“I see you brought a friend,” he answered. 

Albus gave Scorpius a sideways glance and took a breath. “Yeah. This is Scorpius, my boyfriend. You’ve met, I think.”

“Oh, trust me, I remember,” said Ron, smiling at Scorpius. “How’re you?”

“I’m good, thanks,” said Scorpius quickly. 

“Excellent,” said Ron. Scorpius turned quickly to the food table, and Albus made to follow him. 

“Hey, Al,” said Ron. Albus turned around to face his uncle again. 

“Yeah?”

“Boyfriends, eh?”

“Um. Yeah, we’re, er, together now.”

Ron smiled at him and clapped him on the back. “Good job, mate, it took me ages longer to finally get anywhere with Hermione.”

Albus laughed, relief flooding through him. “Thanks, uncle Ron.”

“Have fun tonight,” he said, turning back to Harry and Hermione. Albus hurried over to where Scorpius was standing, talking to Luna.

“Oh, hello, Albus,” said Luna kindly as he approached. “Everything good?”

“Yeah,” he said. “How’re you?”

“Oh, I’m lovely,” said Luna. “I was just warning your boyfriend about the mistletoe.”

“Er… what about it?” asked Albus, glancing at Scorpius. He was blushing slightly and clearly trying not to laugh. 

“Always full of nargles,” said Luna seriously. 

“Thanks, Luna, I’ll watch out,” said Albus. 

“Good,” she said. “Have a nice time!” She wandered over to where the other adults were talking.

“She’s…” said Scorpius, trailing off. 

“I know,” said Albus, “but really, she’s amazing.”

“What did your uncle say?” asked Scorpius. 

“Just joked around,” said Albus, grinning. “I was a little worried, but he was great.”

“I think we should celebrate with treacle tart,” said Scorpius, passing Albus a piece. He took it gratefully. 

“Everything going well?” asked Rose, coming by them again. 

“Great,” said Scorpius. 

“Good,” she said. “Hey, Hugo and Lily are coming up to my room, if you two want to come. Parents get boring.” She grabbed a few crackers off a plate and vanished around the corner. 

“D’you want to go?” asked Scorpius, turning to Albus. 

“I have a better idea,” said Albus, smiling. He took Scorpius’s hand and lead him towards the door. 

“Er… are we leaving?” asked Scorpius, frowning. 

“Nah, we’re taking a walk,” said Albus, pulling on his jacket and handing over Scorpius’s. “If you want, of course.”

“Yeah,” said Scorpius, his eyes sparkling. 

Albus opened the door. “After you.”

"Where're you off to?" asked Ginny, stopping Albus before he could follow Scorpius outside.

"Just outside for a bit," said Albus. "We'll stay close."

"Alright, have fun," she said, shooting a wink at Albus. He blushed and hurried to join Scorpius outside.

The two boys walked out into the front yard. The air was cold, and the snow was falling lightly again, dancing in the streetlight. Albus lead Scorpius down the street, towards the bright houses clustered together further down. 

“This is probably better than a stuffy Ministry party,” said Scorpius, taking Albus’s hand  again. 

“Much better,” agreed Albus. 

“I really like your family,” said Scorpius.

“Really?”

“Really. They’re cool.”

“I think they like you too,” said Albus. He stopped in front of a bench under a streetlight and pulled out his wand, melting the snow and drying the bench. 

“Hey!” said Scorpius, “you could get in trouble for that.”

“We’re less than a block away from a party with the Minister of Magic,” said Albus, sitting down. “They won’t know it’s me.”

Scorpius grinned and shrugged, sitting down and curling up to Albus. “I guess you’re right.”

Scorpius conjured a small fire in an empty bottle that was lying near them, leaving it underneath the bench to keep their spot warm. Albus put his arm around Scorpius’s shoulders, pulling him close. He leaned into his sweatshirt and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath of his scent. 

“Hey, Albus?” asked Scorpius after a few minutes of silence.

“Yeah?” said Albus, sitting up to face Scorpius. 

“I really missed you,” Scorpius whispered. Albus’s stomach flipped. Scorpius’s eyes were flicking to his lips, his eyes glancing questioningly up at him. Albus swallowed, resting his hands carefully on Scorpius’s shoulders and pulling him closer. 

His lips were cool, and his warm breath tasted like chocolate, and his hands were resting on the back of Albus’s neck, cold at first, but less so the longer they kissed. Albus let his eyes fall closed, leaning into Scorpius and kissing him softly, and then not so softly, and then softly again. 

Scorpius finally pulled away, smiling. He reached up and brushed some snow out of Albus’s hair, trailing his cool fingertips across Albus’s jaw. Albus kept their eyes locked, a little out of breath. 

“You’re adorable,” he finally managed, leaning back into Scorpius. 

“Thanks,” he replied. “You’re not too bad yourself.”

Albus laughed, squeezing his hand. “So when we go back to school…”

“We’ll have mountains of homework, and O.W.L.s coming up.”

"Wow, way to kill the mood," said Albus. “But besides all that… are we going to be more, you know…”

“Boyfriend-y?” suggested Scorpius. 

“Yeah,” said Albus, laughing. “Boyfriend-y.”

“Of course,” said Scorpius. “Don’t expect me to snog you between lessons in the corridors, though.”

“Nah, we’re not gonna be one of  _ those  _ couples,” said Albus. “But let’s be boyfriend-y.”

“I still sort of can’t believe it,” said Scorpius softly. “Us. Together.”

“Honestly, I can’t believe we didn’t figure that out a while ago.”

“I mean, it does seem sort of obvious now,” Scorpius agreed. “But all summer and all fall, I just… I was all set to try and get over you.”

“Well, I’m glad you didn’t,” Albus joked. Scorpius laughed. 

“Me too, Albus.”

The two sat for a while, watching the snow fall, before Scorpius finally spoke up again. 

“Should we head back soon? What time is it?”

Albus checked his watch. “It’s half-past eleven,” he said. 

“Merlin, is it that late already?” 

“Yeah. We can probably stay a while longer, though, no one will look for us until after midnight, and we’re right by the house.”

“Oh, good,” said Scorpius, “I didn’t want to leave yet.”

“Me, neither,” said Albus. 

The two of them watched the snow cover the world and whispered and leaned into each other, and the new year came without either noticing it – and neither could care less that they’d missed it. 

“Oh, hey,” said Albus finally, “it’s 12:07.”

“Happy new year,” said Scorpius, lifting his head up from Albus’s chest and pressing his lips gently to his forehead. 

“Same to you,” said Albus, sitting up. “We should head back.”

Scorpius groaned. “Do we have to?”

“Yeah, probably,” said Albus, standing up and reaching out his hands. Scorpius took them and stood, his eyes shining up at Albus. 

“Bummer,” he said, “I was totally willing to freeze to death with you.”

Albus laughed and turned towards the house, leading Scorpius back down the snowy street. 

“It’s okay,” said Albus, “We’ll have all the time in the world.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, thank you thank you thank you for reading, commenting, and leaving kudos. I can't believe I just finished this lol. I hope you liked it!


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